The New York herald., 1922-07-09

Company.
R DEEPING opens a field for
iV up to date fiction which, If
not wholly untouched, has
been but little invaded. It is sur
prising that it has been compara-
lively overlooked, since it is espe-
cially rich in possibilities. His story
Is staged in the devastated area of
France, in the period Immediately
after the war, and deals largely with
the romance of reconstruction. OBJ
viously there is a good background
here for all sorts of adventure; anna
tory, mysterious, pugnacious-any-
thing you like. This story is even
slightly moralized, as a presentation
OF the saving and ennobling power
OF hard, honest work. Finally it
partakes to some extent of the char
acter of an historical novel. Mr..
Deeplng even ventures to bring in
no less a figure than NJ. Clemenceau
himself to engineer his climax and
drive home the moral of the tale.
And it is all very well done.
1t is something of a novelty, too,
IN that the hero is an expatriate
Englishman who turns into a good
French citizen after a sufficiently
strenuous series of adventures. He
and the little French widow with
whom he falls in love are not at all
commonplaces in fiction. Each is a
very successful compound of the
glamour of intrinsically youthful
romance with the sedate, saddened
experience and disillusion of ma
turity. They are very real, and
always manage to stop short of
being in any way overdone, though
sometimes they come rather danger
ously near the edge of that common
fault.
The story opens with one Paul
Brent, British soldier, in the act
OF burying his dead friend in an
orchard of the ruined village of
Beaucourt, Somewhere in France"
toward the end of the war. They
were stragglers, and the Germans
are near at hand. Hunting for a
spade Brent happens upon the
widow, Manon, owner Of the now
ruined cafe, just as she has finished
burying her treasure" in the gar
den. Instead of interfering he helps
her, and that is the foundation of
the subsequent romance.
But Brent is otherwise unhappy.
He has been a failure at home, un-
happily married and generally dis
consulate. So he decides to exchange
Identification disks with his dead
friend He is captured and goes to
Germany prisoner. But after the
armistice he decides to disappear
again and start life anew, this time
as a Frenchman. Brent is officially
dead, and no one will bother about
the other missing soldier, who was
alone In the world. So he goes back
to Beaucourt. partly on impulse. and
there he again falls in with the
widow.
They strike up an unusual part
nership, and most Of the story from
that point on deals with their valiant
efforts to rebuild and to aid other
returning refugees to get back to the
old life. Naturally the reconstructed
Brent, now NJ. Paul Rance, and
Manon fall in love. but equally of
course the progress Of true love is
anything but smooth. There is also
the returned Bibi, a heavy villain.
with assistant villains, who wants
Manon and her property. There are
minor complications, including an
element of red" anarchistic in
trigue; It Is q stirring narrative,
merely as a record Of adventure. 1t
works out to a natural. well ordered
climax. with the full rehabilitation of
Brent, who has earned salvation for
himself as well as for the village.
NJ. Clemenceau is brought in at the
end to pronounce benediction and
dispose of the intriguing anarchists.