riority to the cheap materialism that has been the insistent note of
the prevailing optimistic fiction. There is a great deal of happiness in
Mr. Walpole's pages, but it is not founded on surface vulgarity of
appetite. The drama of his books is not sapped by the automatic security
of invulnerable heroics. Accidents happen, tragic and humorous; the life
of his novels is checked in black and white, often shrouded in grey; the
sun moves and stars come out; youth grows old; charm fades; girls may or
may not be pretty; his old women----

"But there he is inimitable. The old gentlewomen, or caretakers, dry and
twisted, brittle and sharp, repositories of emotion--vanities and malice
and self-seeking--like echoes of the past, or fat and loquacious, with
alcoholic sentimentality, are wonderfully ingratiating. They gather like
shadows, ghosts, about the feet of the young, and provide Mr. Walpole with
one of his main resources--the restless turning away of the young from the
conventions, prejudices and inhibitions of yesterday. He is singularly
intent upon the injustice of locking age about the wrists of youth; and,
with him, youth is very apt to escape, to defy authority set in years ...
only to become, in time, age itself."

Perhaps this is an anti-climax: The University of Edinburgh has twice
awarded the Tait Black Prize for the best novel of the year to Mr.
Walpole--first for _The Secret City_ in 1919 and then for _The Captives_
in 1920.

BOOKS BY HUGH WALPOLE

Novels:
THE WOODEN HORSE
THE GODS AND MR. PERRIN
(In England, MR. PERRIN AND MR. TRAILL)
THE GREEN MIRROR
THE DARK FOREST
THE SECRET CITY
THE CAPTIVES
THE CATHEDRAL

Romances:
MARADICK AT FORTY
THE PRELUDE TO ADVENTURE
FORTITUDE
THE DUCHESS OF WREXE
THE YOUNG ENCHANTED

Short Stories:
THE GOLDEN SCARECROW
JEREMY
THE THIRTEEN TRAVELLERS

Belles-Lettres:
JOSEPH CONRAD--A Critical Study.

SOURCES ON HUGH WALPOLE

Hugh Walpole: An Appreciation, by Joseph Hergesheimer, GEORGE H. DORAN
COMPANY.

English Literature During the Last Half Century, by J. W. Cunliffe, THE
MACMILLAN COMPANY.

A Hugh Walpole Anthology, selected by the author. LONDON: J. M.
DENT & SONS. NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY.

Hugh Walpole, Master Novelist. Pamphlet published by GEORGE H. DORAN
COMPANY. (Out of print.)

Who's Who [In England].

CHAPTER II

HALF-SMILES AND GESTURES

=i=

Half-smiles and gestures! There is always