BOOKS OF THE DAY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 78

BOOKS OF THE DAY.

OLD FASHIONED ROMANCE* “ Ghost Hall.” By E. Everett-Green. (Paper, 2s net.) London. Stanley Paul and Co. The romantic plots and gentle sentimentality of Miss Everett-Green’s stories arc reminiscent of popular mid-Victorian fiction. But doubtless there are still

plenty of readers who enjoy fiction much in proportion as it is unlike real life, and those of old-fashioned standards will be suited by the complete absence of realism of an unpleasant nature, of any hint of lleshliuess, and anything incompatible with conventional propriety. The romance of this story dates back to the days of the Reformation, when a rich monastery was plundered and its abbot murdered, part of the treasure of the monastery being concealed from the marauders. Since those days a curse has rested on those who attempted to destroy the old chapel of the monastery, and a belief in weird and supernatural manifestations within am* about its precincts has persisted up to our own materialistic (lays. An hereditary feud exists between the houses of Guest and Quest, the latter representing the robbers of the sixteenth century. Brigadier-general Quest is saved at Bourion Wood by the gallantry of an unknown officer (really Dunstan Guest), to whom he gives his purse. The general dies of his wounds in his ancestral home, and in the manner of mediaeval parents declares it his wish that liis daughter shall marry his rescuer. The succeeding love romance shows another young offioer posing as the general’s rescuer in order to win Valentine, while he also dares the curse in attempting to explore the chapel for the presumably buried treasure. He is nearly killed by its hereditary guardian, an old man belonging to an uncanny race of woodlanders. This leads up to the discovery of the treasure by those who have the best right to it, and the ancient feud is terminated in the happiest way.