Diane. By Katharine S. Macquoid. 2 vols. (Hurst and Blackett.)
.—There is this advantage in a love-story which has its scene laid in France, that the older people take their due share in the matter. In England, parent and relatives, if they appear at all in the narrative, can do little but make themselves disagreeable. In this charming story of Diane, for instance, there are a number of young people who are quite as much inclined to take the affair into their own hands as if they had been English; and at the same time, there are fathers and mothers who have a very considerable part to play, and play it with good effect. Diane herself is a charming creature, quite one of Miss Blacquoid's happiest efforts; the young men are less satisfactory,—Charles, for in- stance, from whom we had been led to expect something, is a quite colourless person, and the hero, Michel Trudin, is somewhat morose. The widow, too, with her wild plots against her rival, is somewhat melo- dramatic. On the other hand, the minor characters are excellent, the gossiping Rose especially, who talks so well that we should have been glad to think better of her than our authoress permits us to do.
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