Evening star., 1927-09-25
IDA GILBERT MYERS.


LOST ECSTASY. BY Mary Roberts
Rinehart, author of The Amazing
Interlude," etc. New York: George
II. Doran Co.
4" HE same old Ecstasy" that has
kept the world awhirling since
that memorable moment when
Il Adam and Eve broke through
the dull and circumspect rou-
tine of Eden. The same inevitable loss
Also that then, and since then. has ever
met pure illusion in it's fronting upon
bare reality. \ love story. you see.
Modern in it's clothes, in its postur-
angs and preenings to be sure, but in
essence not at all different from the
adventure set on foot by the original
pair. Now as then. too, the woman
started it-just as, in spite of vigor-
GUS denials. she has been doing all
along. Nowadays the fiapper has
more courage than her grandmother
had and she is more honest, wooing
her man in the open, frankly hunt
ress swift and unacceptable.
So it is here. This is the story OF
q pampered young woman out of the
East. Here in the West is the ranch
of her grandfather, a man of big
occasional use of that ranch life to
offset the effect Of his business career
in the East. And this girl is beyond
question old Lucius Dowlings next
of kin. On the ranch she comes upon
Tom McNair, horSeman and Cattleman.
Short Shrift she takes o. that lad, en-
tangling him in a new sort of lasso
that sweeps and swings and slithers
around him in a dazzling network OF
kinks and nooses against which his
own literal technic of cattle work is
child's play, though Tom is famous in
his line all through the ranges. Catch
him? Certainly she catches him. The
boy hasn't a chance in the world.
Catches him to the everlasting misery
of both of them--or SO it looks as we
see them at last moving away, pa
thetically and not very hopefully,
upon a second attempt to make a go
of plainly ungoable concern.
This. in sum, is the story. III such
bare outline it sketches, you see, the
common episode of mistit marriage
with its problem of possible readJust-
ment. Under the outline, however, a
picturesque and exciting adventure
makes its way. In a clear audacity
of courage Mrs. Rinehart has chosen
two extremes of temperament, Situa-
tion and training to suit her purpose
of setting a common aspect of matri-
mony to the measure of a readable
novel, To bring the two to an ulti-
mate agreement of fair dealing and
good sense and to an intelligent use
of the affection which remains after
the tempest of high passion and CLAM
our and unreaSon has passed away
after the ecstasy" has moved out
of the situation, as it must do, II
people are to live at all. This is
what the story itself is about. Brilliant
and dramatic as it Is sincere and not
overdrawn, here you have a tale worth
your reading, a fresh account Of the
most hackneyed theme under the sun.
And even this is, perhaps, not the best
of the matter. Certainly 1t is not the
only best" Holding to her method
of contrast, of setting sharp oppositeS
side by side, the author here makes
a striking picture of the social East.
And close beside it is the big West
not so much picture as the body and
spirit of the West itself. 1t is right
here that Mrs. Rinehart is surprising
in a seizure Of the stupendous fact
and idea of the great ranges of the
West. She knows the face of this
big country and turns it toward the
reader. She knows the people who
live by it and swear by it. She knows
the older days of it's life as well as
the newer days that are bringing cer-
tain changes to it. This is where
she excels, where she surpasses her
self in a story that is clearly drawn
from where she herself is in spirit and
in love. Yet, this is a story Of love
and mistake and mending and making
the best of things. Don't forget that.
But, tired may be here and there with
the human futility of this marriage
business, just get off into the ranges
with the story and forget it ALL as you
will be bound to do. This is the best
of the whole popular 80 or more. No
af haf