626 REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



plainly made ready to fall into a reverie. We Princess \'ictoria, whose grace and 



watched her open-mouthed. His Majesty ^\-^^^^^-, ^re pictured as is their rightful 



was the first to recover the power or speech. , ^ => 



" Whv can't we go bv now. Stamper?" _ . 



" I will see. Your Majesty." ^i course, m a story of tours there 



Indignantly I approached the woman, and must be something of repetition, and 



asked why on earth she did not open the now and again a very banal account of 



gates. With a frown she replied that she ^^^t happened. For instance, the King 



was awaiting a tram which was going the j • • .1 it j /^ 



opposite way to that which had just gone by. was driving through Lewes, and Caesar 



. . . Smothering my anger, I pointed out was one of the company, as usual, 



that one could see the'line for a mile or more, "and," continues Mr. Stamper, "as we 



and there was nothing in sight. Her answer „•„ 1 „tt' -\/r-t -j 



was that the train had been signalled. Had ""^'^^^ Sonig along His Majesty aaid, 



I not seen this with my own eyes? ... ' Caesar, }'0U shall have a run and chase 



"I am afraid we shall have to wait. Sir." the cats. Cats! Cats! Cats! Meow!' 



In another five minutes the train steamed Cassar became ver}' excited and barked." 



up to a little wayside station which stood a ^r. Stamper was absolutely certain 



few yards rrom the crossing. Inere, to our , 1 - . ^ 



dismay, it stopped, its engine coming to that the King was very well the time of 



rest only a few feet from the gates barring his last sta\' in Biarritz. King Edward's 



our way. . . In all we were delayed ^^.^j-ds to liim. as he stepped Out of the 



twenty minutes. , ■■■.1 ^-^t td 



car to get into the tram at La Barre, 



Mr. Stamper, of course, has plenty of were, "Well, Stamper, it has been a most 



characteristic remarks about the various successful time, and I hope vou will 



personages with whom his duties have a pleasant trip home." This was 



brought him in contact, such as the the last time Mr. Stamper saw him. 



MASEFIELD'S DAFFODIL FIELDS. 



" The Daffodil Fields " (MacMillan), his beloved in the " daffodil fields." For 



a versified novel by John Masefield, a time he writes to ]\Iary, then there is 



shines with a steady glimmer among the silence between the lovers, 

 poetical reapings for the month. It is 



filled with Masefield's own peculiar " Spring came again greening the haw- 

 literary beauties that mark his passion- thorn buds ; 



ate gift of simple utterance ; the art to The shaking flowers new-blossomed 



tell a simple tale and yet reflect all of seemed the same 



heaven and earth within it as a pool of And April put her riot in young bloods ; 



water reflects the skv. The ja\'s flapped in the larch clump like 



" The Daffodil Fields " tells of the , blue flame. 



love of two men for a girl. Nicholas She did not care ; his letter never came. 



Grey, an English farmer, when he knows Silent she went nursing the grief that 



that he is near death gives the guardian- kills 



ship of his son Alichael, a wild boy at And Lion watched her pass among the 



school in Paris, to his closest friends, daffodils." 

 Charles Occleve and Rowland Keir. 



Occleve has a son. Lion, and Keir has a \\ hen Lion, tender of heart, can no 

 daughter, Mary. The two boys and longer endure the grief of the deserted 

 the girl have been playmates since child- girl, he goes to America to bring Michael 

 hood. Lion is a quiet, grave young man, back, but he will not come. The free 

 with features that give " promise of a life of the plains suits him, and a dark 

 brilliant mind." He is devoted to Mary, beauty with " eyes that burned " holds 

 but Mary loves Michael. In his own his fancy. When Lion returns and tells 

 light-hearted way, Michael too loves Mary the truth about Michael, her re- 

 Mary, but his desire for a broader life sistance to his suit breaks down, and 

 calls him to the cattle ranches of she consents to marry Lion. A news- 

 America, where he says " land is for the paper clipping announcing Mary's mar- 

 asking." Before he goes away to be riage reaches Michael, who is already 

 gone three years, he swears constancy to weary of the dark beauty and longing 



