23 JUNE 1894, Page 27

The Fool of Fate. By Mary H. Tennyson. (Ward, Lock,

and Bowden.)—The 'Fool of Fate" is a young gentleman who ruins his life and the life of a woman whom he sincerely loves by the habit of inveterate lying. He invents romantic situations of which he is the hero. This is a kind of vanity which is seldom carried to the extent seen in Miss Termyson's hero, but it is not uncommon. Indeed, all of us know people whose statements we have regularly to discount. It seems to be Miss Tennyson's speciality to make theories of curious psychological conditions. "Friend Perditus " was of this kind, if we remember right. It gives scope to ingenuity, and it offers a chance of being original; but it does not conduce to the reader's pleasure.