Evening star., 1924-04-27

unsafeties, the career of Tommy be-
came SO otherwise than the one to
which he had been foreordained and
ordained that, to follow him, becomes
a matter of dealing with new prin-
cipalities and reigning princelets. Nc
one gives to readers more delicious
foolery than does George Birming
ham. No one is more at home with
| the plain human nature Of the cloth
than Is he. nor. indeed, with the
| German outlook, past and present. A
| ncnsensical to-do, 1eughable from the
! first page to the last one. Doctors
| for nine-tenths Of the illnesses under
| their hands.
| THE SHADOWY THIRD. BY Ellen
Glasgow. author of Life and Cab
riella," etc. Frontispiece by Ell
enore Plaisted Abbott. New York:
Doubleday. Page & Co.
1t Is an appealing realm to the
| average-that middle ground between
the real and what we, in our short
| sight, call the unreal, wherein plain
| fact comes in contact with curious
intangible influences and effects. II
is within this zone that Miss Glas-
cow sets this group of short stories
One OF the most interesting of these
| is the story of house in which, dur
concealed her lover, Union soldier,
escaped from southern prison. Sud
| denly. overcome by her love for her
own cause, the girl delivered the
young soldier to those in pursuit OF
him. This act, certainly one of clear
treachery, even though induced by a
love greater than any personal love,
became a spirit, the spirit of that
mousse. Through the passing years
ouite onti spifft difrersn survived In situation
| gave 1t birth, the spirit takes pos
session of a wife who, under it's domf-
nation, betrays her husband in a mat
ter or vital business Importance to
MN. Just the old spirit of treachery
| taxing form and direction again out
or the strength and persistence Of its
original impulse. Interesting and in
terestingly projected, all Of these
stories of the borderland.
THE LAST TIME. By Robert Hicb-
ems. author of THE Garden of Al
Iah,' etc. New York: George IS.
Doran Company.
A group of short stories OF the IA.
mlliar Hichens pattern-pleasantI
engaging IN smooth and easy han
ulinS or situations picked off the top
Of social life. The first one, The
Last Time" is a Woman'S futile con-
fesSlon of having made death a fairly
acceptable escape for a husband from
ms 1bsra wlfe 81, Jealousy. commonplace;
woman in the role of admonition and
warning fails to register clearly. Too
big fool, too selfish, too belated all
around to count for much. The sec
ond story hinges on that old letter
that went wrong-the love letter
that criSS-crosSed to the wrong wom-
an, the one to whom the man is en-
gagged. But it turns out all right.
for the man transfers his affections
to meet this mistake. turns his back
on what he supposed was his real
love, and faces promptly, eyes beam
ing true devotion, the lady whom he
has promised to marry. She is the
right woman, for the indications are
that she can take care of him. En-
gaging, in an easy unexacting way.
All of them are of this pleasant quail
ity, reminding one, all over again.
that Robert Kitchens best work-the
most sympathetic, the most artfully
protected, is the entirely unheralded
romance, The Call of the Blood"
FIRE MOUNTAIN. BY Norman Spring
er, author of 1.-The Blood Ship"
New York: G. Howard Watt
A relief. certainly, to come upon
novel that neither tries to uplift you
on the one hand, nor to drag you
through a gray mess of realism on
the other. The author merely says,
Come on with Martin Blake-young
and romantic-who had the nerve to
break away from a dull Office and go
a-sailing the seas of the north after
treaure." If you consent there will
be no doubt about your agreeing at
the last that no plain everyday i'm
agination could have pictured what
you had to do and to see. The hero
is a likable chap-one of those who
turn off heroic deeds. easylike, in
manner of captivation. Not extrava-
CANT in his ways, you know, so that
you are likely to laugh at him. Not
at all, that. You believe in him and
go along zestfully. And, beside Mar
tin, there is the bind captain, and
the weeping bosun" and the happy
hunchback'-much too bad about the
last onei And there is girl. And
there are villains in pursuit and lot
of things between the outset and the
treasure, between the outset and the
wedding. There is good writing here
as well as good handling of sheer
adventure.
THE LEAP YEAR GIRL. By Berta
Ruck, author of His Official
Finance" etc New York: Dodd,
Mead G. Co.
The Berta Ruck readers will be in
hurry to meet this particular Berta
Ruck girl. These, by way of eighteen
earlier novels. know what this writer
can achieve with girls on the plain
years of decorouS, maidenly waiting
for lovers and proposals. So, with
the leap year privilege as the basis
forward with big expectations in re-
spect to the girl of this story. And
a very unreasonable person it will be
who, out of this amusing-and es-
sentially sound-portrayal, finds any
lack of entertainment for an easy
and unexacting hour. Here, in shreWd
insight and a very clever wit, the au-
thor makes use of that nice line that
the male lays down between a desire
to be pursued and the shocked revolt
I = T. Ii 4
logical outcome of that pursuit
Troubles pile sky-high out of this
situation. But, under the special provi-
dence exercised by the popular au-
| thor, these melt and fade away be-
fore the smooth and happy ending,
without which average readers turn
away in displeasure.
THE GREEN BAY TREE. By Louis
Bromfleld. New York: Frederick
A. Stokes Company.
This is the story of lovely Lily
Shane. A queer story-to get into
! print-so the mentors and monitors
will say, frowning. Yet it's theme is
| drawn from fundamental fact of all
human existence. Everybody is a
stranger to everybody else, a stranger
| to himself besides. No wife knows
no parent his child, no Damon his
Pythias. Deception? Not at all. Just
each one living himself out, in secret
and more or less deliberately. For
the purpose OF good story and good
drama this author restricts the big
theme to Lily Shane and her friends
in a modern setting, partly American,
| partly Partisan. A good sense of
| picture and of story leads one along
here in an absorbed contact with the
inner facts of a few lives at least,
that center about the beautiful and
| gracious, the sympathetic and intelli-