27 JANUARY 1894, Page 12

Platonics. By Ethel M. Arnold. (Osgood, Mellvaine, and Co.) —This

is a good study of life in its way, firmly drawn, and without exaggeration. There are three characters,—Ronald Gordon, Susan Dormer, and Kit Drummond. Ronald loves Mrs. Dormer, who is a widow. She is his friend, and loves him in her heart, but has theories of life which forbid marriage. Then Kit Drummond, her dearest friend, appears. Ronald, decisively re- jected, comes to love her. They marry; the tie between Susan and Kit is broken ; but in the end it is knit again. Such a story, if a story it may be called, will never be popular, but it is well done. It will be sufficient to give a brief notice of two books of