Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1924-10-19

F'rER THE VERDICT. BY Robert
Kitchens. author Of THE Garden of
Allah," etc. New York: George II.
Doran Company.
HE two were married on the
heels of the verdist that
cleared the man from the
II charge Of murder. Give Ba-
ratrie and Vivian Denys. She,
q fine p-standing, high grade English
irl who sturdily stands by under the
accusation and trial of her lover. Now,
a man tried for murder may be ac-
nuitted--and yet in fact be guilty.
This is the vague and shadowy sug-
estion that peers out again and
gain through the long course-the
rver-long course-of Mr.. Kitchens
atest novel. Five hundred pages of
long paragraphs packed with fpe
print go inrJ the mental and emo
tional intricacies {. his momentous
question. zone almost SAID five hun
dred belabured pages.D Even If not
guilty, what is mans future worth
" hen his past is Swallowed by a trial
for crime? This is the question that
the author objectifies here so exhaus-
lively in the moods and hehaviors OF
'live Baratrie. feeling 4 tentative and
autious way not only with himself,
rut with his young wife. and with the
Immediate world also, of which he Is
ndrt. Fear is the groundwork of this
0eriod in Give Baratrie's life. Fear.
18th its timidities and shrinklngs,
VITA it's defeat of the old confidence
nd initiative. with its hurt to pride
md its instinct toward flight and OBJ
-,urity Under the hand of Mr..
fIichens one gets this man. poigant-
IL a M substance of his man
ifold fears upon him. 1t is. however,
"'ith the wife of Baratrie and with
Is mother that the author SpendS
himself to the limit of psychological
insight and dramatic portrayal, set
fing each off in her exclusive rela-
;lon to the object of her anguished
concern. on the tide of their COM
mon food current the mother arrives.
on the flood of her imoassioned love
rhc wife supports and sustains. All
this secured by long Scursions into
inc human mind backt~ by the human
heart. The whole dranIa of lnduolt-
able substance and poignancy. The
outcome? There is where surprise
stands waiting for YOU Beyond this
outcome there is d sliding ground
ward on the rather tagging wings OF
q moral deduction drawn from the
henomenon of successful and happy
marriage.
TIE DARK CLOUD. BY Thomas
Boyd, author of Through the
Wheat" New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons.
The strikingly vivid quality of
Through the Wheat" abo-t which SO
much has been said. is not wholly due,
il now turns out, to its aA-'hor's per-
sonal partaking in the grea. war. For.
The Dark Cloud" stands almost as
Immediately in the readers eye as
does the earlier story. Almost, not
',uite. But in the second romance the
slight stepping away from straight
idce-to-face approach, SO married in the
first one, is clearly par. OF Mr..
Royd's plan, since THE Da~t Cloud"
must be seen as whole tn ough the
EazineSs of - back-reach years.
once inside this time area, however,
one finds no dimunition in the power
OF words. Eighteen hundre" and fifty
three is the opening dae OF this
romance. Just then the United
states was clearly in thr current of
war. Against this background involv-
ing certain personalities chara cter-
istic of the period are drawn the adj
ventures of the boy, Hugh Turner.
central figure in this story. 4 de-
serter from the English ship where he
was cabin boy. he mai IS the journey,
q long one for those lays, down the
st. Lawrence TO Der sit, then south.
then up and down tho Mississippi on a
river steamer. One ot"er figure stands
ont here. that of the Kindly American
who befriendcd Hush, gambler of
Eentlemanly demeanor. and a fellow
feeling for the black man, a smiling
eVader of the law whose agents pur-
sue him and his young companion.
Chance for change and adventure
here, chance of Which Thomas Boyd
makes just what he demonstrated
that he could ms he in Through the
Wheat" Aside rom the picturesque
and exciting de ails with which the
story is crowded there is, besides, an
admirably wayHise accounting of the
mind and heart Of that youthful runa-
way. Speaking of vivid work-if you
are curious to know how it feels to be
licked and whipped and Inundated,
uuspeakably. Just take the handling
of young Hugh Turner that was Civ
n him at thu hands of the skipper of
the craft from which he ran away.
The first two chapters will round up
q drubbing FOR you that will last you
many a day.
THE JNNOCENTS. BY Henry Kit
rhell Webster. author of Joseph
Greer and His Daughter" etc. In
dianapolis: The Bobbs- Merrill
Company.
Just a little. sketch out Of life
drawn by the painstaking hand and
dictated by the divining mind of
Henry kitchelI Webster. You have
all seen him-that middle-aged IA
her who has settled toward the nom
nifty state under failure to come
mp TO his Wife's standard of success.
Md you recall that comedy widow
next door who really thinks father is
q first-class business man. So she
SKIS him over to help her-probably
3, bout her income tax or some pesky
Investment. And father begins to
straighten his shoulders. as men do.
under the notion of feminine conf
dence and approval. Well, such
'ommotion as this innocent episode
did set up all around town. And moth
was mad. just plain jeaious-that's
~ hat she was. And sister called ia
iher IAN old fool" Things were un-
pleasant all around. At the same time,
the son and brother, Ed Patterson,
Vas having troubles of his own,
mostly about school with his failures
in examination, due in large part to
lis infatuation with machinery. Some
Of his troubles were over the girls
d field of abysmal ignorance to Ed,
these girls. But it was by this tor
tuous path of coming to know some
hing about the double-and-twisted
links of girl nature that Ed Patter-
son found his father. Hitherto they
had been just father and son, with
barriers a-many between them. 1t