Evening star., 1916-10-01

to the dingy measure of an outer room
of a Wall street Office and with no
reckonable hero at all to begin with,
this writer sets out on the hazardous
adventure of making a readable Amer
lean story. 1t is, as a matter of fact,
Sarah Kendall Winthrop herself who
brings him out clearly on the right
side of this adventure. Sarah has no
beauty save that of perfect health and
cleanliness. Her education is of the
unfurbelowed sort-spelling, an easy
confidence in commas and periods and
the pothooks of shorthand, a flashing
hand over the keyboard of a typewrit-
er. Beyond these external accomplish
ments Sarah is compact of good sense
and a beautiful instructive maternalism.
Having created her, Mr. Bartlett has
only to take notes on her behavior and
the trick of his good novel is turned.
1t is Sarah who changes Don Pendleton
from a good-natured Stacker around
the office into man, from the spoiled
son Of rich man into a capable fell
low who learns the good feel of the
days work: Sometimes with an un-
gentle hand. but always in the clear
air of a finely stirring friendship, Sarah
confirms herself in the belief that Don
has it in him to make good. There is
an uptown supplement to this story.
with wealth and a beautiful girl and
the rest of it. But the substantial in
terest centers in Sarah Kendall Win
throp, the Wall street girl.
LOVE AND LUCY. By Maurice Hew-
lett, author of THE Forest Lovers"
etc. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co.
Hardly any one else can. when he
tries, make so much out of nothing as
can Maurice Hewlett. Hardly any one
else can make the impossible seem
probable and the nonsensical quite of
the substance of sound sense. Who else
could make one believe that a married
woman could be courted passionately.
in the dark, upon several separate oc-
casions, under the bland supposition
that it was her own husband who,
having broken through his icing, was
whirling a mere wife off her feet in
such transports of nocturnal romance
This is the tenuous thread of Love
and Lucy"-thiS mysterious courtShip
in the dark, coupled with the futile at
tempts of Lucy to cause it to material
ize In the daylight and to get the con-
nection between the cool. thin daylit
man and bewildering lover of the dark
ness. By this time you are saying that
Lucy is a good deal of a fool. And
right here is where Maurice Hewlett
comes in to head you off from any such
opinion. In his hands Lucy is wholly
consistent and beautifully right-a
little afraid, lovely, very eager and out
coming, in the midst of a general ex-
quisite aloofness, spirit about her as
if she were not yet completely en-
bodied as woman. To be sure this is
case of Maurice e-Hewletting-just to
see what a beautiful credibility can be
woven out of cobwebs of fantastic fool
cry. The point is not that it is beauti-
full. That goes without saying. The
point is that it is believable.
THE GIRL AT BIG LOON POST. BY
Charles Van schaick. author of The
Son of the Otter" etc. Illustrations
by I. D. Sisson. Boston,: Small,
Maynard & Co.
The somewhat unfortunate case of
the writer of the western romance is
that, more and more. he is thrown back
upon scenery as the sole source of sup
ply. These romances are fast being
forced into the dilemma of being all
setting or at best a setting dispropor-
tionate in spread and grandeur to the
thin trickle of action that nowadays
can be found to comport with the
rough life that they used to connote.
The Indian, the cowboy. the voyageur.
landscape is being urbanized by the
swift inroads of modern appliance. So,
the romancer Of the west is put to it to
get his primitive stuff across. The only
steady retreat, to beat back farther and
farther into the wild, as long as the
wild lasts. And this is what the author
of this romance has done. Hudson
bay trading post serves him here in
working out a love story wherein an
Indian girl and a young Englishman
are the principals A real villain. a
rival for possession of the girl, COM
plicates the action with adventures in
the back country that, for danger and
hazard and general excitement. make
amends for whatever Of weakness there
is in the love story itself. It is, in fact,