5 DECEMBER 1903, Page 9

Alison's Ordeal. By Adeline Sergeant. (J. Nisbet and (Jo. 6s.)

—Alison Byrne, a very bookish girl, with a certain contempt for dress and the convenances generally, goes to stay in her father's absence—he is sent to Korea on a scientific mission—with some cousins who are high in the social scale. This, with various developments that arise out of the situation, makes the "ordeal." The story is a good one, constructed on lines with which the reader of tales is familiar, but wholesome, pleasant, and never failing in interest. The most original thing in the book is the figure of Rosalind.