3 FEBRUARY 1894, Page 24

Diana Tempest. By Mary Cholmondeley. 3 vols. (Bentley and Son.)—This

is a very cleverly written and interesting novel. The fact on which the plot turns is of a painful kind,—an adapta- tion, under different circumstances, of the "Lord Ronald and Lady Clare" incident ; but the story is worked out with much skill and in an excellent spirit. Diana is a finely drawn character, though how she came to be what she was with such a father as Colonel Tempest, and such a brother as Archie, it is not easy to imagine. Her grandmother, Mrs. Courtenay, is of the type of Thackeray's Lady Kew,—not a copy, but a reminder. Diana Tempest may be recommended without hesitation to any reader that has reached years of discretion.