16 FEBRUARY 1907, Page 23

The King's Wife. By Helene Var.aresco. (T. Werner Laurie. 65.)—After

the Duke the Ring. The intelligent reviewer is only too certain that when, as noticed above, ordinary writers of fiction take to Dukes, there is nothing left for authors like Mlle. Helene Vacaresco, who have passed their life in Courts, but to set their hero and heroine safely upon a throne. It is entertaining to notice in this novel the conditions under which Kings and Princes live, and Mlle. Vacaresco has contrived to make a fairly interesting story in spite of the limitations of her characters. The earlier chapters of the book, while the hero is still only a second son, are the most amusing, and for a Royal romance the story is not at all bad reading.