6 AUGUST 1887, Page 25

Burglars in Paradise. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. (Matto and Windas.)—Those

of our readers who have made the aquaintance of Miss Phelps's " Corona," her maid " Puelvir," and her dog ' Matthew Launcelot: will be glad to hear something more about them; and those who have not, may be recommended to do so in this new record of their experiences. Miss Phelps turns her attention on this occasion to comedy rather than tragedy, her heroine being robbed of a five- hundred-dollar bond, and spending pretty nearly that sum, tinder the guidance of the police, in endeavouring to recover it. There is plenty of humour in the scenes which this situation suggests. How

femininely pathetic, for instance, is the complaint which Corona makes when she and her maid are making their ineffectual prepara- tions against the burglars whom they dread ! She has been attempting to make a hole with a corkscrew. Puelvir interrupts,—"' Laud, Miss Corona ! A screw won't screw without a gimlet any more 'n you can bury a coffin without a grave !' ' A screw won't screw for a woman,' said her mistress, rather plaintively."