12 SEPTEMBER 1903, Page 22

The Burden of Her Youth. By L. T. Meade. (J.

Long. 6s.)—The "Burden" is a debt of a thousand pounds which Ellinor Farrant takes upon herself, after the death of her father, in the forlorn hope of paying it off by her earnings at typewriting, &c. Ellinor takes up her quarters in a "home," where she makes sundry acquaintances whom Mrs. Meade describes in the picturesque fashion which we expect from her. We must own that the heroine's adventures, as Mrs. Meade relates them, are not con- vincing. Neither Roberta Trigg, who actually steals her money, nor Mr. George Godfrey, who tries to do the same, has an air of probability. On the very first page of her tale Mrs. Meade gives us a specimen of her manner. Ellinor has received a letter, and has dropped it on the floor. This is what happens to it : "A zephyr of warm air entered the room and made sport of the paper; tossing it here and there, and finally depositing it in the grate at the farther end of the room." Did any one ever see a lettet conduct itself in such a way? But for all this, The Burden of Her Youth is a pleasant book to read.