18 JANUARY 1890, Page 23

The Line of Beauty. By Emma Marshall. (Home Words Office.)

—This is a very slight tale. There is a doubt whether the barony and the estates of Pierpoint go to a certain young lady, or to a clergyman who has been ordained under an alias, for a Christian name used as a surname is nothing else. Both are good in their way, and the best possible result is attained by their becoming man and wife,—a certain doctor, also an admirable person, having to be left out in the cold. We feel a doubt about Mrs. Marshall's law, believing that in the few- cases where a peerage descends to heirs female, it descends directly, just, in fact, as does the English Crown. If so, Isabel, as the daughter of the eldest son, was the baroness after all.