1 OCTOBER 1898, Page 24

Her Royal Highness's Love Affair. By J. Maclaron Cobban. (C.

Arthur Pearson.)—This reminds us in a way of Sir W. Besant's " Sealed Fountain," only the parts are reversed, and the story is supposed to be of the present day, for a cycle accident brings about the complication. The Princess Ermyn- trnde is saved from a fracture of some kind by Mr. Richard Riccarton, a well-born and handsome gentleman who has to earn his bread by standing behind a lace-dealer's counter. A very pretty story is thus made up. This is a sort of love which -does not find its earthly close, but it is not all in vain never- theless. Anyhow, the humble lover does the great lady a real service, as Mr. Maclaren Cobban shows in a very interesting and not impossible way.