4 DECEMBER 1886, Page 23

Thorns and Roles. By Julia Goddard. (Routledge and Sons.)— This

is a story of school life in which the familiar incident of the stolen essay and the wrongful accusation plays an important part. Familiar we call it ; but it belongs, we fancy, to fiction rather than to real life. One mast not, however, be too critical in the matter. Things had got into such a state at the school where our heroine is beginning the discipline of life that a cataclysm of some kind was wanted to bring about a change for the better, and it is needless to weigh probabilities. It is more to the point to say that this same heroine is an excellent study of character. But why these illustra- tions? That which faces p. 6 is nothing less than a libel.