Heathersage. By Charles Edmund Hall. (Horace Cox.)—This " Tale of
North Derbyshire " is constructed on lines that must be familiar to the most casual reader of novels. There is a long-lost son, confidently reported to be dead, but recognised immediately by the reader (but not by his own father) in the person of the mysterious stranger. There is a stolen cheque, a spendthrift son, a forgery, various damsels, good, bad, and indifferent, and there are, of course, the various complications of lovers, welcome and unwelcome, false accusations, lost wills, and the other properties with which novelists dress up their stage. The business is fairly well-managed. Sometimes we are inclined to pass quickly over a few pages which are obviously not essential to the story, but, on the whole, the tale is fairly effective.—Tho Bride's Experiment. By Charles J. Mansford and John A. Ingle- bright. (Bellairs and Co.)—We are now transported to the Antipodes, to Dingo Creek, in Queensland, whither a certain Harry Gardiner, part-owner of a large cattle-station near Dingo Creek, is about to return with, his newly married wife and her sister. The place is a very rough one, and the bridegroom is a man with a past, which his wife discovers with dismay, and is distinctly unwilling to overlook. The tale is certainly well told ; King, the misogynist partner, is a somewhat bold experiment in figure-drawing, but he is effective. All the personages are very human, and the general result is good.—Dr. Isard, by Anna Katharine Green (G. P. Putnam's Sons), is one of the mysterious tales which their author has a special gift for con- structing. We must not reveal the plot, and as there is hardly any way of criticising the story without doing so, we must be content with saying that the book is good of its kind.—My Dear Grenadier. By Sybil Beatrice Reid. (J. Macqueen.)—Patricia Gore Hatherton tells the story of her home, her friendship, and her love with a certain amount of self-consciousness. She begins by telling us that she has not good looks ; but there is a mental reservation; certainly, other people behave as if she had. There is some fun and some pathos in the tale, and, anyhow, it is wholesome.
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