8 OCTOBER 1904, Page 23

Mrs. Belfort's Stratagem. By Thomas Cobb. (Eveleigh Nash and Co.

6s.)—Mrs. Belfort's Stratagem, if not equal to Mr. Cobb's first books, is a great improvement on those which he has given to the public lately. There is a distinct touch of humour in the contrivance by which the schemes of Mrs. Belfort to marry her daughter to a rich man with whom the young lady has fallen in love result in that young lady insisting on marrying the man when he has lost all his money except 44,000. Mr. Cobb's methods closely resemble those of Mr. Norris, but who shall say that they are any the worse for that?