COMEDY AND TRAGEDY

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 22, 26 January 1929, Page 19

COMEDY AND TRAGEDY

"What Would You Have Done?" is by Louis Tracy (London: Hodder and Stoughton), and it mainly concerns Robert Mannering, lately returned to England from Assam. He finds himself threatened with exposure to a storm on the Yorkshire wolds, and runs to the nearest shelter —an old farmhouse. As he cannot make anyone hear he sits in a sheltered porch, smoking, and waiting for the storm to pass. Curiosity urges bim to look round tho place before leaving, and to his horror he sees through one of the front windows, an elderly man stretched out on the floor, evidently murdered, for there is blood about and signs of_ a struggle. Then comes in the question, "What Would You Have Done?" under such circumstances. Would one have, made tracks for the Dearest police station, or have done a little investigating on the- spot? Mannering chose the latter, and saw. that .the elderly man was and had been battered to death with a poker. The house bad been ransacked. As he leaves the place he sees two men searching for something, and he observed them fairly well. When ihey come to he porch and picking up. some of his recentlylighted matches, begin to look around for the user, Mannering takes himself off aa quickly and quietly as possible. On the road he meets a girl motoring along, and stops her and finds that she was going to the farm to be assistant to a scientific gentleman who goes by the name ■ of "Hope," and evidently is'the murdered man, . who turns out to.be a well-known scientist, investigating the possibilities of using marsh gas as a destructive agent. From this beginning a very interesting story is built up, involving Russian and other agents on the look out. for the formula of the gas, and anxious that it shall not belong to the British nation. Welldeveloped and interesting characters come into the'story, 1 and the-love interest is not lacking. Impossible situations are represented so reasonably as to appear probable. Stage and Battlefield. "The Actor," by H. A. Vachell (London: Cassells) is a-most agreeable story of a young genius who was rather slow in "joining up" iv the Great War, finding the stage much more attractive and certainly much move lucrative. Valentine Godden, "scion of an ancient house," was his father's grave problem, for he was quite unlike the general run of Goddens. He was a born actor, giving peopJo a totally different impression of how he really felt. In "The j Actor," for all its entertaining writing about stage life in Londouaud the intrigues and jealousies of actor and actresses, Mr. Vachell has given his many devoted readers a brilliant character study of a young Englishman of to-day. Indeed, the novel may bo considered a modest offering to tho science of psychology. It is a pleasant story in itself, but a novel of value as a reflector of human naiure when placed in certain difficult circumstances. "The Actor" is a novel of genuine literary art and excellent workmanship. One sentence is well worthy the attention I of educationists: "Mark you, the com- I petition between the public school boy and the board school boy is going to be fierce and tho victory won't be to the weak. . ." Philandering in India. "Under the Mosquito Curtain," by i Pamela Wynne (London: Philip Allan and Co., Ltd., through Dymoek's, Syd- j ney), reveals Dandelion, an unsophis-1 ticated girl of eighteen; in "the' midst of her family, whose income is insufficient for their needs. The visit of a rich early friend of her -father changes her life, becauso he falls in love with her. Her mother, thereafter never gives up hope that she will marry him. He is personally a fine fellow, but ugly and short-statured, many years her elder, A natural disinclination on his part to force her inclinations after they aro married is taken by the girl as evidence that her husband regrets his choice. It is only-alter some philandering with a doubtful major in India, where the couple eventually make their home, that the wife learns her husband's true nature and worth. Too Many Wives. "The Compulsory Husband," by John Glyden (London: Herbert Jenkins, Ltd.), is a story of many laughable situations. Mr. Brommilow is a model husband, but that doesn't prevent him from being attracted by tho pretty wife of Mr. Pillusk'i, tho foreigner over tho way. However, he is very much embarrassed when that young woman takes refuge in his house one dark and stormy night during his wifo's absence. Through the seemingly artless behaviour of this uninvited guest his position rapidly becomes involved, until it is positively pitiable. Only the timely interference of a wise mother-in-law saves the situation and restores peace to two ludicrously harrassed households.