5 NOVEMBER 1887, Page 45

Soap. By Constance McEwen. (Simpkin and Marshall.)—Miss McEwen tells a

story—if it may be called a story—of a gentleman who is clever and cultured and good, but labours under the double disadvantage of being rich and having made his money by soap. He loves a young woman, and to make himself sure that he is loved for his own sake, masquerades in the disguise of a German professor. All the people in this queer little drama talk more or leas brilliantly, some of them rather too brilliantly, and the book is certainly read- able. But if a reader were to lose it when he is half-way through, he would not be much vexed. Somehow, the people do not interest us.