18 OCTOBER 1890, Page 24

The Family Coach. By M. and C. Lee. (National Society.)—

This is a genuine child's book, not quite so common a thing as one might suppose among the multitude of volumes that profess to be written for this public. Henrietta Strangways, a young lady of sixteen, is a clever and capable young person, but not quite so clever and capable as she thinks. She and her two sisters and her brother are to meet their father and mother, who are returning from India, at Marseilles ; and she feels quite equal to con- ducting the party. What happens thereafter, how she finds that things do not go quite as she expected, and generally how she was• brought to a more just appreciation of herself, is told in a most amusing way by Misses M. and C. Lee. The adventures of Henrietta with the cat which her troublesome young brother has secreted are particularly good. "I think the most astonishing thing in the whole affair," is the comment made by a lady who helps her out of her difficulties, "is that Lady Julia's protegk of all people in the world, should be wandering about Boulogne at midnight with no chaperon but a tom-cat." The scene in the

railway-train, where Rosie the maid distinguishes herself, is equally good in a different way.