The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-07
AN OLD-FASHIONED NOVEL

From the Kansas City Star.
 IN recent years there have been several
 N noteworthy attempts by writers to re-
 A vive the old style of novel character istic of the Dickens and Thackeray era the three decker" as Kipling termed it. That the attempts have been only moder-
 ately successful in a very few cases re- quires no explanation. William De Nor gan may be cited as an examples there are few who were not charmed, for in-
 stance, by "AliceFor-Short."
 In the strong dramatic situations and characters of "One Braver Thing" Rich
 ard Dehan seemed to forecast that at, a future date her pen would give us a
 really great book, a book that would live
 In Between Two Thieves" just pub lished by the Frederick A. Stokes com
 pany of New York, she has more than re-
 newed her promise, if not actually full filled it.
 The stage setting is most happily chosen. The reader is carried back and
 forth from France to England. during the
 period of the coup detat of Napoleon III,
 and the subsequent sanguinary campaign
 in the crimea-a name written in blood in
 the pages of English history One is almost awestruck at the thought of the work that must have been required in they,accumulation of historical data and
 at the brilliant, fearless treatment of the materials collected. The book is as
 much a bitter flaying of Frances dis
 solute and rapacious prince-president and emperor as it is an eloquent tribute to the angelic character and almost super-
 human heroism of Florence Nightingale,
 thinly disguised under the name of Ada
 Merlng. One feels that many of the figures in this story are character studies
 of real people of the time: indeed, many
 students will unquestionaby recognize the
 prototypes.
 The hero, or rather the central figure of Between Two Thieves" is one Hector Dunoisse, the son of an aide-de-eamp of Napoleon l. Dunoisse's life is a tragic one from beginning to end. He is the vic-
 time of the evil heritage with which his father hasacursed the life of his son by
 an unlawful marriage with nun and the
 saerilegious wrestling of her dowry from the church. A series of unfortunate cir
 cumstances, beginning with boyish duel gradually undermine the unhappy young mans resolution to live down the stigma attached to his name. With lofty purity of mind he sternly refuses to lay his
 hands on a single franc of the tainted for tune deposited to his credit in Paris bank. He lives, therefore. on the slender means derived from his profession as a cavalry officer. while his check book lies dust covered in the drawer of his desk. A pathetic message of poverty and suf- fering from his former nurse. a quaint, prim figure of austere spinterhood anus ingly suggestive of Jane Austen's char acters, causes a hurried trip to Lon
 don hospital and to her death bed in time to correct certain misapprehensions ] which she entertained by reason of his apparent selfish neglect of her, and n time 10 strengthen his determination to live his own life free from the contam- mating influence of his heredity. Here at the hospital, too, Dunoisse poets, in the person of it's founder, benefasfress
 and head, Ada Merlng. and unconsciously falls in love with the glorious ideal of womanhood as typified by this beautiful character, ana, SWdyeu py tiic iduidul
 purity of her views. returns to France with the ringing oath: May the hour
 that sees me spend a sou of that accursed
 money be an hour of shame for me and bitterness and humiliation,"
 Back in Paris Dunoisse now falls un- der the influence of an interruptions but
 sinfully beautiful woman, the wife of the colonel of his regiment Fatally fascin- ated, he allows himself to drift. prey
 to his baser passions. and. little by little, honor decency, self respect, loyalty 70 his vows desert him; he becomes the abject slave of his mistress and her tool and blind victim in repeated acts of li- 1 cense and extravaganza; at her behest he even brushes the dust from his check
 book and the depths of his degredation and the dizzy heights of sensual intoxica-
 tion are reached whep the accursed for tunes goes to gratify the whims of tlD
 woman Dunoisse piunges recklessly and wantonly into this new life and enjoys 1t. No qualms of conscience disturb him. 1ae has grown tired of the fight against