Evening star., 1925-09-13

embellish the action itself The
heroine is a heroine and looks it.
The outcome is a right about face
of surprise, with logic and genuine
cause to sustain it, And Jasper
Shrig. detective-well he is just
another one of the familiar triumphs
of that beguiling writer, Jeffrey
Farnol
MRS. HARTER. BY E. M Delafield.
author of "The Heel of Achilles"
etc. New York. Harper Bros.
MO more than an English neigh
borhood is set here as the stage
of action. And the action itself is, con-
formally, of narrow scope. Teas
and tennis and talk-these are the
externals of an outcome really mo-
mentous in it's revelation of charac-
ter and personality. However, with
out any outcome at ALL possibly
without any stage at all or any
rounding of these episodes into
drama, this would have been a very
special entertainment. Conceivably,
the author might have been sitting on
the porch. watching the world go
by, commenting upon it, and the
effect would have been about the
same. For 1t is the authors prompt
seizure of characteristic and trait
and habit, it is her ready appraisal
of those about her and her innocently
cool methods of exposure that create
the full sense of joy in Mrs.
Harter." A little thing-not much
of story according to the rules and
regulations-turned off with hand
so light so free from formal gesture
that one forgets that this is read
ing at all. Rather Is 1t an incom-
parably zestful hour in the company
of intelligence and wit and smiling
ironic intimacy with life and men and
women.
THE CHASE. BY Mollie Painter
h Downes, author of THE Shoreless
Sea-" New York: G. P. Putnam's
Sons.
ONE, Charles Standish, is the hero
who carries on here as the chief
figure in the game covered by this
title. Tnis is the great love chase,
which demonstrates, incidentally. that
the runners may change Indefinitely
while the chase itself goes unbroken-
ly forward. This everybody knows
TO be a fact, though many cling to
the tradition of unchanging love.
However, the point of arrest here is
that a girl of II wrote this novel in
a clarity of prescience that as rule
belongs only to years and gray hairs
and seasoned wisdom. Like a very
veteran, she follows these groups of
shifting loves and lovers, no less than
three of them, with a truly amazing
sense of the mental happenings that
source the outer, moves in the game
itself. Precocious child, that's what
she is. Curiously mature, too, in the
care and circumstances of her build
ing, in the balance and shadings of
her work, in the rounded and con-
vincing quality of it as a whole One
takes great comfort out OF certain
part and aspect of this story. This
is that the author is never anywhere
else quite so sure, quite so much at
home in her theme as she Is por-
traying Charles Standish as a little
boy. picturing the other youngsters
with whom he is here and there asso-
ciated. If she were not at her best
here with childhood, where she her
self pretty nearly belongs, why, then
she would be a prodigy, even a phe-
nomenon, and that would be hope
less. AS 1t is, the girl is a genuine
hope, out of a very real and con-
vincing performance.
OAK AND IRON. BY James B. Hen
dirk, author of without Gloves"
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
THAT'S the man himself-the man
of oak and iron-David Gaunt.
Honest, narrow, hard, Unconditional,
David Gaunt here takes his place as
one Of the many heroes of the North
where eXactions and hardships provide
unfailing material for the weaver of
robust romance. A leader who could
command loyalties but who could not
enlist love, David Gaunt Is here the
center of many incidents and episodes
characteristic of the region that ap-
peals so strongly to adventurers and
to the readers of adventure. 1t Is,
however, the social and home life of
David Gaunt in this lonely region that
is of prime Importance, since his
failure to realize that loneliness for
either himself or his wife creates the
situation upon which the strength of
this action and its ultimate outcome
depend. Indeed this story, in a lower
latitude, would be a social problem
tale. Climate. however, and isolation
settle 1t as adventure of purest brand.
An intensely human story and one