The sun., 1919-10-19


1t has so many phases-as the girl of
moods, the pretty girl, the ugly one, the
sweet, the sullen, the tricksy, the straight
forward, the girl evanescent, the girl eter
nal-each adds to the variety of living
and the perplexings of mere man.
Also they are staple in the story books.
ask you what would be tale without at
least one girl in it7 Maybe not the hero
Inc, maybe long beyond proper girl age
but unless you find her that book viii
show a lack. All the later destinations of
Vanity Fair do not for me eclipse the pic
ture of Becky hinging back at her precep-
tress Joknsors Dictionary.
Though a worth while book is pretty
certain to have girl, it by no means fol-
lows that girl, or even several, can make
a book worth while. Barbara of Bali
more is not case in point. The girl who
gives name to the book is an engaging
young creature, albeit built after a model
that is well worn, not to say shop worn
the demi- semi-martyr type, prosecuted not
for Righteousness but for too abundant
charm.
Sometimes lone orphan, sometimes
sister-here she approaches the lines of
Cinderella-sometimes stepchild or hns-
woman, eating the grudged and bitter
bread of dependence-and bearing up 80
beautifully she wins hands down over the
favorite, no matter what the odds.
Sunshiny Barbara is only partial mar
tyr-even ak, who imposes on her and
does her dirt in love affairs, has lapses into
natural feeling. The story is very well
told, considering its manner of telling;
several narrators, each speaking in the
first person. 1t has war flavor of course
the hero being one Patrick Francis
Goven Deems, sometime a British officer,
heir to an Irish estate and title and sup
posedly suffering from shell shock or
something as elusive, who has come to the
Crane house in hope that its master, Bar
bara's father, may cure him.
The Cranes are poor, but ever so well
born-their house is old and so rambling
and full of architectural quirks it could
give cards and spades yet beat any ordi-
nary haunted castle. 1t has history and
achieves mystery, by harboring an adroit,
thieving spy. The depredations of this
light fingered person are rather skilfully
used to further the love complications of
Barbara and Patrick, by making each mis-
take the other for kIeptomaniac to be
shielded from suspicion. Alix, who has
marked Patrick for her own, adds a jeal-
GUS maiden's mite to their troubles-but
why try to tell all the storyf Unfair
besides there's such lot more of it. Miss
ing documents, local history and color,
Francis Scott Key and "The Star Gs1n-
gled Banner'-ever and ever so many
things. ALPS well that ends well-suffice
it that the story ends exactly as it should
in a way to delight and thrill all read
ers who love love.
Mrs. Grace Mcleod Rogers tells with
love and knowledge of her own Nova
Scotia, but in Joan at Halfway falls into
a habit of sinful overtelling. It makes
her book heavy in the hand and In the
mind. How could it be otherwise, when
each salient incident is related at least
three times overland always with meticu-
fous detail? All its dramatic personages
are Scotch Canadians, well drawn no
doubt-but some of them, to an outsider,
appear scarcely to be worth the drawing.
1t seems rather a pity to put "thrawn"
and twisted folk between book covers,
simply because they are thrawn and
twisted. Still, IN picturing human back
water, where Life eddies instead of flowing,
where inbreeding accentuates natural
cussedenss, it may not be possible to get
away from such types.
Uncle Garrett lord of Halfway Was