The New York herald., 1922-02-26


st to some one else and say. Here's
a book you've got to read" And safe
to say, if the person takes the book
and your advice he will sit reading
1t till the last page is turned. Not
that it is a mystery story where the
curiosities of the plot hold you tam
gled in a web. 1t is the sheer human
interest and the effect the book gives
of having been written. so to say. all
in one piece. 1t moves right on. You
find yourself at once in the midst Of
the story, interested in the people in
volved. bewitched by the whole set
ting, carried along by the authors
fervor, by her clear and lively style
that creates picture after picture,
situation after situation, each dis
tnct yet each merging swiftly into
the next as scenery moves seen from
q train. The train here is the main
theme and It is that old and always
new one. the love Of man and a
woman who belong to each other. and
their struggle to reach one another
through all the obstacles and dangers
that law, custom and training have
interposed.
The story is laid in San Francisco
though there is moving interlude in
New York and glimpse of Europe
the San Francisco of the sixties. We
are introduced to a society composed
of a most restricted group. moving
to a set of rules all the more inflex-
ibie because of the isolation of this
group in a California only recently
the theater OF the wild doings and
wild characters of the fifties. group
moreover that was removed from di-
rect contact with any older estab-
lished society TO an extent nowadays
almost impossible to realize. The
Journey around the Horn. the tremen-
dous trail across the Continent, these
were the only roads. and each was
a slow and a long one. These San
Franciscans were chiefly made up OF
Southerners recruited since the war,
ruined by it OF disgusted at the sit
uation in the South. Here in the far
West these men and women could
recreate an atmosphere resembling
the one they had known. they could
again make fortunes and they could
live in an ease and a style that
suited them In their town houses,
I'm their beautiful country estates
they felt themselves at home And
they jealously held their ranks
against the invasion of an outsider
not properly accredited: especially
they resented the admission OF a
Eortherner. a New Englander. one OF
the hated conquerors who had laid
their lands desolate and swept away
the flower OF their young men.
1t Is, however. New Highlander
who is the heroine of the story. She
comes TO this group as the wife OF
popular doctor. a man who had been
considered a catch by the girls and
their mothers. but whose tempera-
ment made of him mans man.
rather bored than otherwise by the
society of women. Nevertheless on
O. visit to the East he had succumbed.
And great were the conjectures. dark
the doubts of the friends who now
waited to see the bride. One thing
was certain; IL this woman. as seemed
probable. proved impossible, then the
doctor would have to be dropped.
There could be no compromise The
Gearys. the Abbots, the Ballingers
and the McLanes. they were all
banded together to protect themselves
and the rest from any contact with
the common or the lowly born. The
doctors blue Southern blood could
not help his wife. But Madeleine Tai
bot was not the kind of woman to
be ignored. She was beautiful. dis
tinguished, exquisite in manner. fa-
m.liar with the best society in the
East and abroad. Young. simple and
delicious. she walked straight into the
hearts of her husbands friends. and
was Immediately made one OF them
without reserve of any kind Her
s-oo,o, frach from, pa rio u-are ON.