New-York tribune., 1922-11-26

Harvey. ClOGA.
THE MYSTERIOUS OFFICE. BY Jsn-
netts Lee. Scribner'A.
TM%0 OWN that one recalls, how
ever dinaly, the time when
4 Stanley ]. Weyman was "best
seller" is rather damaging
admission. However, ten years is q
generation in literature, and twenty is
as cycle of Cathay. And then Mr..
Weyman is not so hard TO remember
as some. He has never quite dropped
out of the running. He is just little
out of style, that is all; he has become
a staple instead of novelty.
Well, TO be a novelty demands moth
ing but newness; TO be staple re-
quires substantial quality. Mr.. Wey-
man always did have more of that than
he got credit for. He became distin
guished as a rather light romancer;
but he had ever a solid basis of real
ism, a sense Of both character and en-
vironment as it affected character, so
that his plots had some relation to
both those factors. Now the gilt is off
the gingerbread, it is easy to realize
what good molasses goes to the max
iag of it, even if it be not nectar and
ambrosia, His latest book, owing
tons Bank" is a worthy example. One
perceives that he turns to the past for
material, because there he finds the
roots of the present. This novel, dated
TALLY with the life of to-day. 1t shows
the beginnings of the age of finance
and of rapid transit, and its titular
hero is a self-made man.
The bank in question is CONNER
cial institution. But banking was not
then the solidly respectable vocation
it now is. Putting your money in
bank was regarded as something of
sporting proposition; double or quits,
according to the ability and honesty
of the banker. 1t was a part of the
great speculative and industrial move
ment that came after the end of the
Napoleonic wars. Hence old Squire
Griffin not only mistrusted banks but
despised bankers. His fortune was in
land, and he increased it by the simple
expedient of stealing the common
from the goose; that is to say, en-
closing the village green. like many
another fine old English gentleman of
his period. Gains made by trade or
finance were low.
When the squire's nephew and pos
sible heir, Arthur Bourdillon, insisted
on becoming a junior in Ovington's,
with prospects Of partnership. the
dear old man nearly had apoplexy.
He forbade his daughter Josina ever
again to look on the youth with favor.
Josina timidly assented. Her father
had always bullied her within an inch
Of her life And, then, she was in love
with young Clement Ovington.
Clement in turn was disaappoint-
ment to his father. He actually. pre-
ferred puttering ABOUT on the land bet
vii
hind a counter. Ingratitude was ram
pant all round. The younger genera
ton was getting out of bounds. as
usual. Why must people be young! a
sheer waste of time.
From thence Mr.. Weyman might have
proceeded by time-honored methods to
purely conventional pairing off, in
the old three decker style, which cleft
the lovers kissing in couples on the
decks: left the william bafied and the
parents signing checks" And he has
some of the old-fashioned devices of
Mot: but not all those devices were
despicable. People don't reform nor
change their whole natures suddenly;
hut they do bend or break under pres
sure Of circumstances. We all come to
our porridge oftener than we like to
admit Squire Griffin had to, and so
did John Ovington. What broke the
blood did not save his nephew, Arthur,
from being thief and forger. And
O4inpton lost some of his self-assur-
ance during a run on the bank. So
the ending of the story Is not unal-
loyed happiness, no more than life is.
And If it is a little stodgy at times,
why, so is life. 1t is not, in any event,
saccharine; but more like roast beet
and Yorkshire pudding, solid slice OF
paSilV
believe that the descendants of Clement
and Josina are alive right now, the
most crusted Tories in their county,
writing indignant letters weekly to
"The Times" about the impudence of
the new rich.
The element of novelty constitutes
the chief interest in Maurice Barings
little novel, Overlooked" 1t is an ex-
pertinent in form, with elements of
danger for novelists, as whole, for it
reveals them as something less than in
1allibie. Not meaning Mr.. Barring him
self; but he has shown herein how a
novelist gets his material, and what he
does with it, and leaves you wondering
il that is as near as any of them ever
come to the facts of the case. 1t is
double -barreled story. First you
are introduced to the characters and
Lne E6JLlnR as tneN dAc-no, uoG oSShi
but anyhow understood by Anthony
Kayl
Kay is blind. He is taking the cure
at French watering place. Because
of his misfortune people talk to him
rather freely. James Rudd, the novel;
ist, discusses with him the fictional
possibilities of the various other guests
at the cure, and their stories as he
glimpses them through scrappy bits OF
information they let fall. All this Kay
sets down. Following this introduction
is the story as written by Rudd. And
then there is an epilogue showing how
far off Rudd was in his solution. 1t
goes Henry James one better. Only
a very simple plot could be treated in
this manner; and such this is. And as
the illusion is deliberately destroyed,
one must get ones pleasure from the
authors fnesse. 1t would probably be
caviare to the general, but amusing to
authors-unless the portrait of James
Rudd hit them too shrewdly. The i'm
plication is that as between him and
Kay the blind man sees clearest.
Should you expect Swedish detec-
tive story to be different from any
other kind? Or is the detective story
truly International? 1t began in France,
didn'tsit, and was brought to its high
est or most popular development in
England? Surely there is no question
that Sherlock Holmes is the greatest
-ItD 49,.