one must accept that scene as one of
genuine dramatic worth. Too much of the drama in the book is theatre
rather than drama, and yet the author's gift is essentially dramatic.
He knows how to tell a story on his stage that holds you to the fall of
the curtain, and makes you almost patient of the muted violins and the
limelight of the closing scene. Such things, you say, do not happen in
Brookline, Mass., whatever happens in London or in English country
houses; and yet the people have at one time or other convinced you of
their verity. Of the things that are not natural, you feel like saying
that they are supernatural rather than unnatural, and you own that at
its worst the book is worth while in a time when most novels are not
worth while.

Footnotes

"The Right of Way." A Novel. By Gilbert Parker. Harper & Brothers.

"The Ruling Passion. Tales of nature and human nature." By Henry Van
Dyke. Charles Scribner's Sons.

"Spoils and Stratagems Stories of love and politics." By Wm. Allen
White. Charles Scribner's Sons.

"Foma Gordyeeff." By Maxim Gorky. Translated from the Russian by
Isabel F. Hapgood. Charles Scribner's Sons.

"Circumstances." By S. Weir Mitchell, M.D. The Century Company.

"A Japanese Nightingale." By Onoto Watana. Harper & Brothers.

"The Marrow of Tradition." By Charles W. Chesnutt. Houghton, Mifflin
& Co.

"Lay Down Your Arms. The autobiography of Martha von Tilling." By
Bertha von Suttner. Authorized Translation. By T. Holmes. Longmans,
Green & Co.

"Let Not Man Put Asunder." By Basil King. Harper & Brothers.

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