18 FEBRUARY 1893, Page 25

A Tangled Web. By Lady Lindsay. 2 vols. (A.. and

C. Black.) —Lady Grisell, heiress of a Scotch earl, grows weary of her Northern home, and answers the advertisement of "a lady of title" who wishes to chaperone "a young lady—Australian or otherwise," and to introduce her to good society. The "lady of title" turns out to be a fraud, the impoverished widow of a knight ; but Lady Grisell, masquerading under the name of Marjorie Smith, meets her fate in the person of a cousin, for whom she has hitherto felt a strong dislike, he, it should be said, being still un- known to her. The story is nothing like what Lady Lindsay can write. That the plot is grossly improbable, is but a small matter ; it is more serious that the heroine is a foolish, hysterical creature, while the proposal made by Sir Richard Bingham, considering the relation in which the parties stand to each other, is not far from being revolting.