4 DECEMBER 1909, Page 11

school-story is no easy task, and a good girl's school-story

is, we imagine, even more difficult. Miss Baldwin has sought to produce a novel situation by representing a girl who has been brought up by an old grandfather, who thoroughly disapproves of modern girls and their ways, especially of speech. The result of his educational system is really rather alarming. Barbara is a quite hopelessly unnatural person, and when she is sent to school we must own to a distinct feeling of sympathy for her class. How she overcame their antipathy must be left for Miss Baldwin to tell. Suffice it to say that in the end she is liked "in spite of it all," which says much for her and something for her schoolmates.