18 DECEMBER 1897, Page 23

The Lady of Holt Dens. By Emma Marshall. (Griffith, Ferran,

and Co.)—Mrs. Marshall always writes so well as to command readers. But it must be said that this story is of the thinnest kind. There is hardly a story at all. An eccentric nobleman leaves at his death a daughter whom he has kept secluded from the world. He appoints a guardian, and he writes a letter request- ing some kinsfolk of his own, whom he has seen nothing of for many years, to make a home for his child. The daughter is described, and the relatives and the guardian. We have, too, the pleasure of making the acquaintance of an excellent Bishop. And all ends as it should end. But story, in the ordinary sense of the word, there is not.