New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1922-07-02

<AiiuSl TON MaCnlllan.
THE VANISHING OF BETTY VARIAN.
BY Carolyn Wells Doran.
THE SECRET PARTNER. BY Elizabeth
Frazer. Henry Holt
TO JUDGE by the limited amount
of good stuff produced, there
is no more difficult branch of
letters than that form of COM
edy known as farce, whether on the
stage or the printed page. Cyril Aling-
tons little novel, Through the Shad
ows," is a hopeful attempt, but not
quite an achievement. It provokes an
ungracious thought of how much bet
ter F. G. Wodehouse could have han
died the same theme.
But Mr.. Wodehouse has progressed
a long way from his beginnings. If
Mr.. Abingdon is a new hand, he may
take heart Of grace. He opens with
the classic gambit Of mistaken and
assumed Identities, no less than four
Of his leading characters being con-
strained to the pretense. Excess
IS the essence of farce, but that
is too many; it thickens the
plot to lumpiness. One forgets
who is which, and why. The author
himself seems to have found the initial
complication too great, or else his in
ventlon tagged, for he fails to rise to
that grandly prenpsterous climax which
should naturally ensue. He can only
struggle through q few cross-purpose
conversations. and drop it all with a
series of tame explanations.
The English captain masquerading as
Polish clairvoyant, in a house party
of young lovers, with a Chicago widow
and an Anglican archdeacon thrown
in for good measure, promised better
than that. He was, indeed, such a
happy thought one could ask Mr. Aling-
ton to do him over and do him justice.
The authors style is competent; the
dialogue, as the publishers remark, is
natural and amusing, but has not the
rich absurdity it might have. Etymol-
ogists will note with interest that in
England the word "pussyfoot" has be-
come noun, thanks to Mr.. johnson.
The whole performance will pass. It
could be much worse, but-"the little
more, and how much it is"
6NAROLYN WELLS cannot plead in
" experience. "The Vanishing of Betty
Varian" is the latest of long line of
thrillers and begins with one of the
most satisfactory problems Imaginable
Figure to yourself house built upon
the summit of headland which rises
vertically from the rockbound coast OF
Maine to height of three hundred
feet, with no other means of approach
save gate through wall and thence
by precipitous flight of steps in plain
view Of the world On sunny summer
day. while a party Of friends waited
by the gate, ready to 60 on a picnic,
Betty Varian ran back to the house
to get her camera, which she had for
gotten. All the servants were away at
the circus; the house was quite empty.
Betty was in high good humor and
apparently had not a care in the world.
She vanished into her own front door,
And she did not come out again. Her
father grew tired Of waiting and went
after her. He also failed to reappear.
The others went after him and found
him dead in his own hall, shot through
the heart, and Of Betty not trace.
Yet she could not have got away by
any other known means than the path
to the gate, where her friends waited
unless she jumped over the cliff, in
which case her body must have been
found on the rocks below. What be-
came of Betty Varian?
1t is so delightfully."- insoluble one
must forgive Miss Wells for cheating
little. For it is not quite fair of
her to give an answer which she has
already explicitly stated to be impossi-
BILE. Her famous detective, Penning-
ton Wi4, is rather stupid, and the
episode Of the attempted robbery on
the train is quite preposterous. Imagine
watching a villain go through your
pockets in a Pullman car and then
calmly going to sleep to give him