THE EQUINOX
a “Péche Melba”? You are not a “trivial” Mrs. Warren; what do you mean
by “plumping down” before me this “little bit of fluff”?
Now don’t be too bored or too serious, Joseph, be a good fellow even towards
those who are unlike you, for a good heart is worth a dozen good heads and
heaven only knows how many bad ones. Eat your “scoff” and enjoy it; give
the girl a kiss—even if among the boats; and shake hands with the Chaplain—
after all he probably agreed with you over the Boulter Case. Here surely is a
link between you! Drop the “insufferable” and the “Christmas-card-curate”
description of him, use your tea-spoon like an ordinary decent Christian and
don’t empty the sugar basin, shake hands with him, my boy, shake hands with
him, and try and be a real good fellow, Joseph, a real good fellow, as well as an
indifferent evolutionist! A. QUILLER.
WITH THE ADEPTS. By FRANZ HARTMANN. William Rider and Son.
If you have never been to “The Shakespeare” or “The Elephant and
Castle” please go; for, for the same price that you would pay for this book you will
be able to obtain at either a good seat. Go there when they are playing“ The
Sorrows of Satan,” and you will have no need to be “With the Adepts” of
Franz Hartmann. Besides, if you are not amused by the play the back of the
programme will surely never fail you. There you will learn the proximity of
the nearest “Rag Shop” where old bones, scrap iron, india rubber and waste
paper may be sold; and should you, like us, be so unfortunate as to possess a
copy of this story, may with a little persuasion induce the ragman to relieve
you of it. Besides, it will also tell you where you can obtain “Sausage and
mash” for two pence—and who would not prefer so occult a dish to a “bun-
worry” with Sisters Helen and Leila?
From page one to one hundred and eighty this is all warranted pure, like
the white and pink sugar mice on a Christmas tree—quite wholesome for little
children.
Not only can you meet the Adepts but the Adepts’ “lady friends”; you
might be in Bloomsbury, but no such luck. Polite conversation takes place
upon “advanced occultism,” which strongly reminds us of the pink and paunchy
puddings of Cadogan Court. The lady adepts are bashful and shy, but always
very proper. The Monastery might be in Lower Tooting. The hero asks silly
questions so as to give the Adept the requisite opportunities of making sillier
answers, “I was rather reluctant to leave the presence of the ladies . . . the
ladies permitted me to retire.” Outside bottles full of this sort of occult
Potassium Bromide, this novelette is eminently suited as a moral sedative for
young girls when they reach sixteen or thereabouts and are beginning to
wonder how they got into this funny world.
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