The New York herald., 1922-08-13

men in the story, Gregg Mowbry, an
easy going but really fine character
reflects, when confronted with the
fact that Charles Hale, the father of
Marjorie. is leading a double life. "
that heretofore he had regarded that
sort OF thing as more or less normal
and even insignificant, but that when
he meets it concretely he does not
like it, especially since it is going to
hurt Marjorie, whom he loves.
He observed as simple, obvious
fact that the easy, irresponsible
way of living was becom-
ing more and more popular; the
oldf fashioned home with sober du-
ties and ideals was amazingly less
so. IL he thought at all OF the
transition stage. he had supposed
il to be easy enough and natural
merely a matter of choice for any
individual. :. But here
suddenly he revolted in savage
aversion to these great indulgent
buildings in such opposition to
Marjorie's home and to his own.
where he had been happy as a
boy.
Marjorie has always idolized her
handsome, powerful and highly sue
cessful father, until he is shot by the
ex-husband Of his mistress, and by a
set of accidents Marjorie is enlight-
ened. She combines with Gregg and
with Bill Whitaker. her fiance. TO
help them cover the accident TO avoid
the breath of scandal" but she is
almost mortally hurt herself with the
destruction of her idol. And she is
puzzled; life, it appears, is not so
simple as she had supposed. And
she determines to find out ''the
truth" for herself This involves n
quarrel with her lover, Bill, who is
type of the ultra-simple minded
youth of a very old-fashioned order.
In fact Bill is simply put into the
story TO represent something. and as
such a Implication he is somewhat
overdone-not quite wooden, but far
less alive than the others. He was
capable Of separating people" Mar
jorie tells him. 'as the Sunday school
cards used to show God doing. into a
flock of sheep and flock of goats
But that arrangement is too
easy for this. Billy: il won't work
with me-"
So she goes of to experiment with
lie for herself. earning her own liv-
ing. and is thrown among the vast
mass of the foreign born and new
Americans who make up the bulk of
the Chicago where the whole story is
staged. And that brings in the SUBJ
sidiary thread of the story: the over
throw of the old stock by these new
corners. They're taking over Chi
cago from you" says the young
Hebrew-American lawyer who has
been called in to help. "as we are
taking over New York from you and
the rundown Dutch. The Anglo
Saxon stock in America that sticks
TO its stock is almost through. It's
going down and going under. or it's
gone up and-diminishes."
These two threads are very skill
fully worked together in an intricate
plot. a plot full OF finely dramatic
situations. orderly and inevitable in
its working out. He manages to
bring it to hopeful conclusion with
the final romance of Gregg and Mar
jorie. who decide to begin life to-
gether on the old-fashioned basis
with Marjorie's final vision OF herself
as "a molder and bearer of the
future" defiantly asserting that ''the
Mowbry's wont go down"
Going back to the starting point il
is more than implied that the failure
of Charles Hale TO hold his home TO.
gether, and his wandering after
strange goddesses. is. after all. chiefly
due to his wife's failure either 10
him, or to live up to her
fair share of the compact of the old
ideal of marriage. Charles is not ex-
but he is explained. The
whole analysis is one that might be
TO intelligent American
women for soul-searching study.
The book has many fine qualities