26 JULY 1902, Page 23

Margaret. By L. T. Meade. (F. V. White and Co.

6s.)—Mrs. L. T. Meade makes a great feature of her plots. We do not mean that they are always good ; in fact, they are sometimes not a little amazing. Still, the reader may rely on having a sensation, and will very often have a novelty. Margaret has a dramatic ending, and we see with pleasure that the good and the bad people get severally their deserts. Poetical justice, exiled, one had almost believed, from the earth, still lingers in the pages of Mrs. L. T. Meade. The style is simple and unaffected. Margaret is a fine type of woman, but we imagine that the average man would prefer a less ideal person with not so complicated a life-story. Hattie is a clever study of jealousy, and is, perhaps, the best thing in the book.