SOME NOVELS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 3, 3 July 1926, Page 21

SOME NOVELS

HOW PAULA RECOVERED HER PET. "Sonny." By Virginia Brightinan. •:;. London: Geoffrey Bles. This is a book which proclaims the virtues of.a man's dog over a woman's dog. The effeminaMon of a puppy by I a lady owner is apparently held in abhorrence, and Paula Grayson's .young Airedale "pet" escapes the drawingroom fate by being kicked off a United States overland train by a brutal rail>ay employee. As Paula (or her millionaire father) ha'a paid 900 dollars for "Pet," there is a great hue and cry; the dog-beater takes to flight; and Paula, abandoning the train at the first station, scours the American desert in an appropriated motor-car in search -of her dog. Meanwhile, "Pet," bruised and bleeding, has fallen into the hands of a typical cowboy ("Dave") falsely accused,of murder, and becomes the great friend'and ally of" the fugitive; no longer a lady's dog named "Pet," but a "man-dawg" rechristened "Sonny." There are terrible fights and flights in the desert between the cowboy and his pursuers, between "Sonny" and his old enemy the dbgbeater of the train, who turns out to be the real murderer. At*last, when everything is cleared up, the „dogjj beater dead, the sheriff and his posse appeased, there remain in the picture three figures—"Sonny" the dog, his bereaved mistress, and the usurper. Dave. As "Sonny" will no longer answer to the name of "Pet," and as he takes orders from the man in preference to the woman, Paula ' adopts the next best course and marries Dave. Thecareful reader will have seen this coming two Or threo chapters before. All three live happily ever afterwards.

"P.A.L." By Felix Reisenberg. London: Herbert Jenkins Colonial Library. In P.A.L. Tangerman the writer has made a very interesting study of a modern business man, of a certain kind. Whether there are many who can succeed in hoodwinking the public as well as themselves is a question which the book leaves unsolved. The personality of the man is wonderful, eager, visionary, and yet practical, courageous, cheerful, kindly; at the same time utterly lacking what is generally known as "principle"; so the study in humanity is a most unusual one. The book is supposed to be written by a man who escapes from a shipwreck; a Russian, he takes the name of Markham, loses his own identity, but takes it up again later. He is recommended to P.A.L. by a mutual friend, and he is taken on by the financier as a useful person to be referred to as "tho man who looks after my interests- in tho East" (or the West, or anywhere else according to convenience). Sometimes he is overwhelmed with paper wealth, at others he has to get along as best he can with little or. no money, and the story of his subterfuges has a very comical side. For those whs are interested in American finance (of a certain description) ami in the promotion of schemes by advertisement alone, the book is most thrilling, while there is a good general interest attached to it as well. P.A.L. projects wonderful schemes for hair-restoring, patent medicines, advertising, mind-training, goldmining, and a host of other things; ho turns in a marvellous amount of money at the beginning of things, and later loses it, and all with the same courage and optimism. ,When he gets entangled with women, however, the Samson comes to a fall of a dramatic description. But Markham comes through happily, and the book ends with a marriage. ' .

'' The Southdown Flapper.'' By Hugh Tuitc. London: Herbert Jenkins. A quaint and amusing story is told in the "Southdown Mapper," hy Hugh Tuite. The Flapper, not a modern lady,

as might be supposed, is a pre-historic maiden, whose skeleton is found embedded in the chalk of the South Down, by an eminent geologist, Professor Benjamin Fairfax, whoso disrespectful friends name the little skeleton "the Flapper," and laugh at him good-na-turedly for his regard for it. The professor is located in a small country town and continues his geological tappings quite happily till he attracts the attention of an elderly maiden, Miss Bessie Pope, who is represented as being desperately anxious to be married. She enlists the assistance of a married friend, Mrs. Burdon, and the}' make up quite a good plan to secure the subjugation of the professor. But, unfortunately for tho success of their plans, he is in the church, waiting to hear the organist practise—and they take shelter from a storm of rain. They do not see him, and discuss their plans, and he is made aware of the attack to be formulated. A young friend of hisj Ralph Warrender, who is in love with Maud Daventry, the charming daughter of the vicar of the parish, gives him assistance. After many attempts, the attention of the spinster is diverted to a j Swedish nobleman, Baron Rodersirom, of Roderstrom, who courts her in a very "rough-and-ready" fashion, aiid presently makes use of her to get possession of the case with' the Southdown Flapper. They elope, and the would-be bride is deserted by the pretended baron, under rather cruel circumstances. The love affairs of Ralph and Maud are disturbed by the Rev. Golightly, a curate. The professor finds later that the quiet sister of the vicar, whose organ music has been such a pleasure to him, is the only person who is necessary to make life perfect for him, and after many amusing adventures all the threads of life of the couples are sorted up into a harmonious pattern.