27 MARCH 1897, Page 24

The Shadow on the Blind, and other Ghost Stories. By

Mrs. Alfred Baldwin. (J. M. Dent and Co.)—A very little of the supernatural is sufficient in fiction. In fact we are in- clined to think that ghost-stories are scarcely worth read- ing unless they profess to be true. There is no restraint on the writer. Those who claim to be describing life can be tried by certain etandards. But when we are taken into a world of which we know nothing we are helpless. Mrs. Baldwin's stories are sufficiently blood-curdling, as far as incident is concerned ; but they do not affect us any more than do the disagreeables of an ordinary dream. It is the nightmare that terrifies, and the nightmare seems real.