23 JULY 1910, Page 23

Perfidious Lydia. By Frank Barrett. (Chatto and Winans. 6s.)—This is

a very delightful and cheerful story of an elopement to Gretna Green in the early part of the nineteenth century. Owing to the precautions taken by her very sensible guardian, Lydia, the heroine, is obliged to part from her lover, and to perform most of her journey alone disguised as the gipsy mistress of a small caravan. When she gets to Gretna Green the guardian takes the place of the bridegroom, and the end of the book is concerned with his courtship of his nominal wife. The story makes pleasant reading, and the picture of the unfortunate husband of the real gipsy, who is compelled to disguise himself as a dancing bear, is amusingly drawn.