The sun., 1919-05-18
By BENJAMIN DE cASSERES.

20 and 260 of book called Family. The
rest of the book is by Elinor Glyn. These
drawings are in Mr.. Flagg's best genre.
The first is eroto-andante. The second Is
eroto-mystico. The third is eroto-tango.
The fourth is religioso-stiletto.
In the first picture Denzil watches her
with burning, longing eyes, waiting for
her to speak-Page 1872 l turned to
page 1S2 and got all Hurried. II love
you! / love you! And she fercely
clasped her arms around his neck" 1
glyned along. "'And your lover wants
you,' and Denzl wildly returned her fond
caress." Carramba! l elinored down the
page with visions of That's, Salammbo
and Carmen eating cancers of curiosity
into my mag "She had, indeed, forgot
ten that CHASTITY colossus in her absorption
In their own two selves" was puzzled,
but the end of the page was in sight and
found that Amaryhs had "steadies"
who had fallen at Mons and the Marine.
So began TO read the book (some re-
viewers do, oddly. Family has a sub
A, title, The Awakening of Lady Arddyre.
This awoke reveries in me of Lady aud
ley's Secret, which every Philadelphian
will remember was played for seventeen
nights in conclusion at Forepaugh's ten
twent-thirt by George Learock and his
Incompatible company of inimitable Thes-
plans. Great daysl The Awakening of
Lady Arddyrei The music of Swinburns
is in that line. At-a-lan-ta in Cal y-don-
say If like that. What an improvement on
Three Weeksl A title without lit or
hthesomeness or lullaby.
The names of the inmates of this book,
however, are superlatively poetic. Lend
your tymp. a moment and get these:
Sir Johr Ardayre.
Amaryllis Ardayre
Suecubus.
Verisschenzko.
Harietta Boleski
Sweet Lady of My Soul.
. Mum.
As you can imagine, there are enough
names here for great plot and seven un-
dercurrents. The latter are interesting,
for Mrs. Glyn has become so subtle and
enigmatic in her style in late years that
even Henry James, aided by his copy
of Browning's SordeHO, would have had
difficulty in coaxing out the arcanas Of
meaning from the name of metaphors and
the souse of SMILES. But it is not the
story, after all, that is the thing in the
books Of Elinor Glyn. lush! the Greeks
said it all.
1t is the prose that puts her in class
all by herself. Take the last line in the
book: $50 perish all spiesw Nothing
ragged here. A simple, direct exclama-
ton, with meaning as plain as a frank
furter. And patriotic. Take this on the
first page: "She had lived in the country
and was as good as gold" The most
recognizable of all SMILES, as the virtue Of
A. A. is here compared to a very simple
substance, although not now in circulation.
Turn to the tragic thirteenth chapter,
where the Fates are doing a marathon in
the footsteps of these poor children Of
destiny-but why quote when we must tell
something of this great story7 I am not a
jewel plucker, but book bar.
1t is this way: Sir John Ardayre went
honeymooning in Paris with his lovely
young bride, Amaryllis, and it is almost
spoiled by the fear that he will die without
an heir, in which case the family title and
estates would go to a scoundrel who
claims to be his half-brother. Prompted
by sense of duty to his family, Sir John,
unknown to Amaryllis, adopts a daring,
unconventional solution of the problem,
aided by his cousin Denzil [see page 125],