The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-07-11
"A Drama in Sunshine"

10y horace AuneSleF hacheLL. aurhor Of tfEace
of CLAY" etc. Published by r. F. Fenno &
Co., New York. Price 81.
Horace Annesley Vacheu has written
all sorts Of stories and this one is IN
like any Of the others. Il is frankly
a. meIodrama and so fun of vivid pic
lures that IT might easily have been
written with the idea OF stage pro-
ducuon.
In a little prologue part Of the his
tory Of the heroine, Damaris, is dis
closed. She is a daughter OF Ohio
Fabian, a brother of the rich Dennis
Fabian. Of san Francisco Ohio is dy-
ing and says nothing Of the mother
Of his child except that she is dead.
The minister who is with him at the
last calls upon Dennis Fabian and tells
bim the story, but he refuses TO take
the child. so the warm hearted minis
ter adopts her. She is brought up in
san Lorenzo and when the story opens
the minister is dead, Damaris is a
grown young lady. and rather out of
sympathy with the woman whom she
believes 10 be her mother
A tremendous land scheme is being
engineered 10y Dennis Fabian and his
attorney in the matter is William Chill
lingworth. a self made man Of San
Lorenzo. with good brain but a few
weak points caused By his great am
bitiOn
Chiuingworth has been a frequent
visitor al the home Of Damaris and she
is shyly in love wiki him and he with
her one afternoon he speaks and she
accepts. bat when she tells her mother
there is d terrible scene. The mother,
who is stII young woman. only three
or four years older than the lawyer.
has been setting her cap for him. 1t
had not occurred to her that the simple
and quiet Damaris possessed any at
traction for him and to relieve her
feelings she reveals TO Damaris the
secret Of her birth. The poor child is
greatly shocked, but at once tells it
all TO ChiIlingworth and everything
IS smooth again soon they are mar
ried and for little time are very,
very happy. But Chillingworth is man
aging gigantic subdivision transac-
tion for Dennis Fabian, and is de-
tanned more and more from his home
while Damaris grows more and more
lonely.
At this point. the daughter Of Den
mis- Fabian. accompanied by her hancee,
chaperOn and Fabian's son come out
20 San Lorenzo to spend a few weeks
fishing She promptly falls in love
with Chillingworth and hirts outrage
ously with him and he, while not in
love, likes and admires her very much.
and does not wish 10 show her less
attention because of his position with
her father The plot. although COM
plicated Is well handled and brought
10 q most successful climax.
The story IS woven around one OF
the old Spanish land grants and the
trouble IN fixing the title. The family
which had owned il gradually died and
the title was bought by Dennis Fabian.
IN the meantime hundreds -of squatters
had settled uDon the land and had
been there SO long that they could not
understand the eviction proceedings
and were planning TO fight for their
rights. All this which is early Cali
fornia history, is told with an accuracy
which almost argues first hand know
ledge. and the souatter trouble and
warfare affords opportunities for many
dramatic situations. The story is a
great Improvement on Face of Clay,
the last tale received from this author
end though not extraordinary is read
able and entertaining.