The important thing about
Miss CONYERS' people is that (whatever their private worries) a-hunting
they will go; and _Fiona_, financed by her paying guests, shows in this
respect as capital sport as any of her predecessors. For the rest, I can
hardly say with honesty that the story is equal to its author's best form.
* * * * *
What I like particularly about Mr. FREDERICK NIVEN is the friendly way in
which he contrives to make his readers and himself into a family party. "We
must," he writes at the beginning of a chapter in _Cinderella of Skookum
Greek_ (NASH), "get a move on with the story, in case you become more tired
of Archer's compound fracture than he was himself." This is by no means the
only occasion on which he shows his thoughtfulness for us, and I think it
very kind and nice of him. At the same time I will ungraciously admit that
the weak point of his story is that it does not move quite fast enough.
Admirable artist in psychology and atmosphere, his plot, if you can call it
a plot, is very slight. _Cyrus Archer_, the young American of the compound
fracture (who had my sympathy from the start because he could never
remember dates), goes out into the back of beyond for a spell before
settling down to married life and a place in his father's business, and at
Skookum Creek, where he grows tomatoes and studies Indians, he meets his
_Cinderella_, with the result that his life has to be completely
rearranged.
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