The San Francisco call., 1910-12-04
.The Green PATCH

III Be.tiua won Hut-en. author ~ 'Beechy-'
rtc .Pub,isaod br tredcI-ck A. Stokes &
CO.. Ne- York;
-The Green Patch" is the most tan
rasizre ~ all the books yet produced
nr re Hssoness vou HCtten- for she
makes read II through 10 the end,
always hoping for something TO nap
pen. aalE 10 irritate Us at the last by
o0c of the most Inconsistent tales she
has rorpetrated- Here is a book full Of
fine material so badly managed that the
story suffers. and Fl is all wasted.
CrIi stopher Lambe is a husband and
father ~ irreprOGchable morals. His
tnroe little girls and his wife do not in
rorest him in the least, however. in
fact. they bore him so dreadfully that
ar last Le packs Up his things and
leaves The author makes It perfectly
clear that boredom IS the only reason.
ETc Goes not care for women nor for
men. and after knocking about the
world he buys an estate IN Italy and
takes wuch pleasure in collecting all
aNrts ~ treasures Of art He has no
desire for a divorce. and sends his wife
ard children all the money they want,
only demanding that he be let alone.
Some years pass, and his wife sends
the Youngest daughter to spend the
winter with him. for she has had
asthma
THEY get along famously and be-
come great chums. The girls charac-
Ter IS very interesting. She is plain
almost to ugliness and is a coward, a
liar and a thief in a childish way, not
craminal. Der two sisters are beaub-
ful, but she loves one and hates the
other The mother for all her COM
uonplaCeness, is most unusual IN that
She has submitted so calmly to her de-
serti0n. She has apparently gone on
with her life In the same fashion day
q frf.rr d. -,
Christopher was at home with them.
She. too, has no desire for divorce.
The curious background has some
effect on the youngest daughter, the
plain Daphne, especially after her
winter with her father, for he has
become so attached TO her then that
he insists upon having her half OF
every year, and this is destruction TO
all discipline in the girls upbringing
II rfe development Of character in all
these persons was pursued reasonably
the story might be interesting, but *
IS most inconsistent. Hugh Cunning
a good but dun young man. falls in
love with the eldest daughter, Sylvia
who is so beautiful that he can not
see .she is more than ordinarily stupid
The second sister, Susan, also beauti-
sful. bat less so, loves Hugh and
maneuvers in an underbred fashion so
that they are separated at the last
moment GIG ctAhla LicsLAEE "a man ble
has known but a few days
Susan hopes Hugh viii turn TO her.
but 10 evervbody's surprise he finally
n1arrles Daphne. The climax OF the
Story rs unnatural, nasty and disap-
pointing Hugh takes Daphne to
Ceyl0n for her health, and while there
She has a liaison with q rascal whom
She is deluded into loving. The green
patch IS a patch worn over the rascaIs
eye after a shooting accident There
seems no reason in the last incident
unless the author is paving the way
for a sequel, a very necessary sequel
for several Of the characters are left
fn such unpleasant situations we
should ike to pull them out.
The baroness, as usual. makes use
4 a fine epigrammatic style and is
Y en- at times brilliant but she is trad
llg on her reputation, gained from
Pam and other tales, and the reader
has decided feeling Of resentment.
The story is purposeless and does 10.
even amuse.