The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-10-12


tenal evidence of being left overs, rather
oerhaps held overs, since they are so OBJ
viously aimed to suit the perfervid
patriotism of yesteryear. Would they
have suited it?
Has anybody else, / wonder, listed
among German atrocities what their war
has done to fiction7 The count is not
trivial, when one considers the effect of
horrors and "villainOus saltpeter' on even
such shining lights as Locke and May
Sinclair. f. Phillips Oppenheim's mar
vellOus German spy statesmen were at
least high colored enough to hold attention.
Here's Elizabeth Robins in The Mes
senger giving us German spy stuff from
start to finish, with her usual intensity
even bit accented. The spy is femi-
British Cabinet Minister, and bent on
captivating his private secretary as she
has captivated everybody else, but falling
down there, harmless from the secre-
ouopltiOu VI WudL ouC ID dDOuL
than from his enthrallment by her friend
Nan, most amazing of all amazing Ameri-
can girls who, in fiction, dispOrt them
selves in John Bulls Island
Nan as the messenger-an unwilling
one of course-gives title to the book but
throughout plays hardly second fiddle to
the astounding Greta, who, with masculine
aeeompliees outside, comes near to playing
hob with the war right in the beginning
by finding out and telling all about every
thing planned for army, navy or govern
ment before the things can happen. To
the lay mind her methods appear a trifle
crude-but she gets away with everything
for ever so long. Then when all is dis
= covered she is not shot, not even impris-
oned, but sent home to save the scandal
of discovery in such quarter.
Does she stay home? What would be
the use of her there ITO the novelist, l
mean. She comes back, keeps coming
back in protean guises, each subtler than
the last. Faithful Nan elings to her all
along. An ardent pacifia in the outset,
she helps Julian, her pacifist fiance, an
impossibly noble person, in the work of
propaganda. This means much ocean
crossing-in course Of it Nan finds out
more about the multiform Greta, but re-
mains infatuated with her. Gavan, the
private secretary, also comes along. Too
late Nan has discovered that he is king Of
her heart
There are scenes iii New York, in
Washington and elsewhere - sailing
across again, torpedoed ship, which is
good for many pages, submarine cap
tain whom it. is wild flattery to call
deyilish brute-and much else that any
case hardened novel reader can easily
imagine.
The glorified governess who came in
with Jane Eyre and for fifty years
thereafter rioted through fiction, destitute
of beauty but panoplied in charm with
big eyes: and soul to match (which in
variably bowled over the hero three chap
tiers from the beginning, and beamed love-
light upon him in the next to the LAST,
has a successor even deadlier. The sue
cessor is model who, in spite of posing
tout ensemble, remains model of Abstract
Virtue, yet enjoys more than all the lux
uries which additionally flourish along
the primrose path. Her name, her back
ground, differs-she herself is just the
same. Witness Peggy-Elise, the orphan of
a French officer, who quite thrusts herself
upon the job of posing (for Phryne) to
Venable, the American sculptor; inspires
him of course; captivates him more surely
of course; is herself captivated in return;
but holds him off because he is unwilling
to face the prospect of what Bernhardt
calls little accidents.
She comes to her mothers American
sister and is heart broken to find folk
this side eating, drinking, being merry