Sebastiani's Secret. By S. E. Waller. (Chatto and Windus.)— The
secret is a certain power over women, which has been handed down for generations, but is known at the outside to but three people. It is mixed up with occultism and the ancient Atlantis, and when we have said this, it will be seen that some of our readers will find material especially fascinating to them. Fortu- nately we are not bored with too much talk of ancient tablets and genealogical trees of incalculable length. The author is probably akin to the Anglo-Israelites. She makes, however, a very readable romance of ordinary human affairs with a great deal of mysterious and not uninteresting accessories derived from Indian sources and similar occult phenomena, and the tale never becomes dull. A subject such as "Sebastiani's secret," treated entirely with a view to mystery and imagination, could, of course, be made impressively fascinating by a Wilkie Collins.
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