3 OCTOBER 1885, Page 22

A Rustic Maid. By A. Price. 3 vols. (Sampson Low

and Co.)—This is one of the pleasantest novels we have seen for along time. Aubrey Brooke, the heroine, is charming, and her character is well-sustained

and true to nature thronehout. Christopher Grant also enlists our warm sympathy. The incidents are not particularly new ; indeed the interest of the first two volumes lies rather in the fresh picture they give of a simple country life, than in the mystery of the heroine's parentage. When Stephen Brooke comes upon the scene, the plot is rapidly developed, and the tale ends appropriately with the dispersion of the cloud which obscured his fair fame, and the happy union of the _heroine and her true-hearted lover. John Guyon is a passable, if somewhat commonplace, villain.