Evening star., 1934-09-12
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margusf Cermond.

Margaret Germ0no.
THE QUEENS WIGS. BY Naomi
Royde-Smith. New York: The
Macmillan Co.
Had Rozel Merton been given
preference of occupation on raw,
drizzly afternoon instead Of being
ordered to lead a group of her school,
mates in hockey practice she might
have chosen any number of things
more to her liking. But she had not
been asked what she would rather do,
so she hitched her Sam Brown belt,
an inheritance from the father she
had never seen, few notches tighter
gether happy, though she would have
been at a loss for q convincing ex-
PLANTATION as to why. Some day, Of
course, she planned to visit her
mother, who had married again and
gone to Australia to live. There had
been occasional attacks Of homesick-
ness during the years Of their sep
aration, but their devotion to each
other was too sincere to allow the
germ of loneliness to develop into a
genuine nostalgia. Then, there We're
wealthy relatives who lived luxuriouSly
and Travelled extensively and who
were always kind and generous, but
she envied them neither their lives of
ease nor the gay and brilliant pleas
ures demanded as well as afforded by
the exclusive social order of which
they were an intimate unit. School
was not much Of a home, yet it was
not so bad IL she did not think about
1t too seriously, and there was always
the dream that the next year would
bring q reunion with her mother.
1t was such thoughts as these which
caused Rozel to hitch her belt little
tighter during the detested practice on
the rain-sodden hockey ground Of a
girls school in England on the after
noon which was destined to start a
chain of events altering the entire
course of her life.
Lady Bottomley, the dowager god
mother whose riches and social posi-
ton she might have envied and did
not, needed her services and had wired
her to come Immediately to Irolya to
act as secretary In a work of emer-
gency proportions. No hint was given
as to the nature Of the work she was
expected to do. But any mission for
Lady Bottomley held a promise Of ad-
venture, and RoZel knew she could
surely expect something unusual
When the lonely and frightened girl
Of seventeen alighted from the train on
the Irolyan frontier she might have
been parting filmy veil and stepping
through mirror into a world of fam
taStic dreams.
4 4 n II
A picturesque kingdom has been
created by the author, located in a re-
mote area of the Alps, and ruled by an
incompetent queen, largely In accord
ance with the whims Of her fascinat-
ing, dominant son and an interna-
tional group Of intriguers, whose indi-
v1dual motives of Selflshness or greed
lie back Of the never-ending plots and
counterplotS for control of the minia-
ture realm or for possession of its
material wealth.
Foremost in the picture Is Rosel her
SELF, pawn in the game of intrigue.
stumbling into one pitfall after an
otner, trusting every one and believing
no one as the result of a series of
nerVe-racking experiences within the
short span of twenty-four hours.
On the evening of her arrival at
the Astoria -Magnifique, an ultra
modern hotel on the shores of Lake
Yannan, she is arrested as a spy and
charged also with attempting to pass
counterfeit money. Later in the eve
ming the Crown Prince selects her as
his dancing partner, giving additional
proof in the eyes of his enemies of her
guilt. With every move she makes
thereafter she becomes more deeply
involved in the schemes and plots of
all the conflicting political elements
with which the kingdom Is seething.
Queen Ariana owns an extraordi-
nary collection of wigs. Due to the
death Of the keeper of the wigs and
her destruction Of the catalog, some
one must be assigned the task of
making new catalog, and that some
one must be able to decipher several
OF the dead languages as well as to
translate many of the modern Ian
guages into the tongue of the country.
RoZel fits the bill, and that is the
task Lady Bottomley has brought her
to Irolya to fulfill.
While one group Of schemers in this
fanciful kingdom is striving to OBJ
tain the wigs at any price, another
group Is plotting to overthrow the
kingdom and set up q republic. An
other group, headed by the Crown
Prince, who has become an aviation
enthusiast, Is engaged in a campaign
of persuasion to induce the Queen to
sell the wigs for sufficient money to
build an enormous modern airdrome.
One wig, that which had belonged to
the Empress Messalina, Is missing
from the collection. Accusation Of its
theft has been directed toward sew
eral individuals. 1t is the most val
liable wig In the collection and unless
1t is restored the would-be purchaser
with the most money will not con-
slider buying it at all. Another client
of Mr.. Noblestone, the Queens hus-
band, will buy the incomplete col
lection at less attractive price. To
the Crown Prince the price is not a
consideration so long as it is great
enough to meet his immediate needs.
Already he has managed to sell many
Of the castles priceless treasures, some
with, others without, the knowledge of
his mother. The wigs have proved
difficult, however, for she does not
wish to part with them.
How Rozel is finally released from
the multitudinous problems which
beset her in the village and in the
hotel, how she eventually is trans
ferred to the castle to perform the
task she has been engaged to ac-
complish, how she meets and wins the
confidence and the affection of the
Queen, how she faces danger and fear
in the castle, how she finds the miss
ing wig and what 1t all leads to, is
woven into fascinating tale of ro-
nance and adventure that is exciting
and colorful from beginning to end.
Dubious Data.