12 OCTOBER 1929, Page 30

DUCHESS LAURA, CERTAIN DAYS OF HER .LIFE. By Mrs. Belloc-Lowndes

(Ward, Lock. 7s. 6d.).—A Duke and Duchess are the central figures in this novel. They and their six children find themselves in all kinds of exciting predica- ments. Young Lord Selsey, for instance, is in love with a beautiful actress, but escapes her clutches ; Lady Susie falls in love first with an international crook and then with a Penni- less Indian Army officer, but it all comes right ; and a sinister, but beautiful, Russian thief, masquerading as __an Italian countess, steals the Duchess's heirloom, the enormous Catherine Ruby, but is cleverly induced to disgorge it. Mrs. Belloc-Lowndes displays all her accustomed skill in the difficult situations in which her ducal family find themselves, and has made a most entertaining and unusual novel.