* * * * *
Let me duly respect Mrs. Humphry Ward. She knows her business. She is an
expert in narrative. She can dress up even the silliest incidents of
sentimental fiction--such as that in which the virgin heroine, in company
with a young man, misses the last train home (see "Helbeck of
Bannisdale")--in a costume of plausibility. She is a conscientious worker.
She does not make a spectacle of herself in illustrated interviews. Even
in agitating against votes for women she can maintain her dignity. (She
would be an ideal President of the Authors' Society.) But, then, similar
remarks apply, say, to Mr. W.E. Norris. Mr. W.E. Norris is as accomplished
an expert as Mrs. Humphry Ward. He is in possession of a much better
style. He has humour. He is much more true to life. He has never
compromised the dignity of his vocation. Nevertheless, the prospect of the
_Guardian_ reviewing Mr. W.E. Norris on its leader page is remote, for the
reason that though he pleases respectable and correct persons, he does not
please nearly so many respectable and correct persons as does Mrs. Humphry
Ward. If anybody has a right to the leader page of our unique daily, Mrs.
Humphry Ward is that body. My objection to the phenomenon is that the
_Guardian_ falsified its item of news.
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