14 DECEMBER 1895, Page 23

The Spanish Maiden. By Mrs. E. E. Hornibrook. (S. W.

Partridge and Co.)—The heroine of Mrs. Hornibrook's story is rescued from the Foundling Hospital of Seville by a kindly English lady, who adopts her. The scene changes from Seville to Brazil, and the uncle of the heroine suddenly turns up in the person of a padre, who throws off what seem to him the errors of his Church, and goes to preach in the wilderness. Transito, the heroine. also adopts the Bible as her guide, and the hostility which this gives rise to makes her lot none too pleasant. Eventually all ends well. The story, if not exciting, is readable, and in places has decided pathos, and the scenes on the fazenda give the reader some notion of life in the Brazilian country, and the manner of life in the family of a fazendairo.