10 DECEMBER 1887, Page 8

The Palace in the Garden. By Mrs. Molesworth. (Hatchards.)— Three

children, the eldest of whom is supposed to tell the story, find vast delight in a house into which they find their way through a certain mysterious garden.door. It is not inhabited, and yet it is not deserted, and the little adventurers seem to have discovered a real romance. And then one day a picture which they have been ad- miring seems to have suddenly stepped down from its frame, for there is a young lady greeting them, quite as pretty,—indeed, far prettier ; and she has, they learn, the same Christian name as one of them. The fact is that the children have mixed themselves up with a little family secret, and are the happy means of letting some wholesome light into it. It is a very touching Beene where the old feud is healed. Mrs. Molesworth has given us here a story which cannot fail to charm all readers, The children'', talk and fan, their hopes and opeonla.

tione, their fresh interest in all they find, are capital; and the devious.- meat of the story is as good in its way.