17 NOVEMBER 1888, Page 46

The Gate in Park Lane. By the Hon. Gertrude Boscawen.

(J. Nisbet and Co.)—This tale is very much in the'milk-and-water style,—in other words, feeble. The plot is a mere nothing, the moral obscure, and the characters of a very weak and indefinite kind, possessing no interest at all. An old blind woman fastens open a gate in order that she may not have the trouble of hunting for the latch in the dark. This open gate admits various cattle to a plantation of young trees, which suffer considerably. This is not a powerful plot, and its weakness is not cloaked by exceptionally well-drawn characters. In fact, there is nothing to call for notice in the tale.