MCKENNA, STEPHEN. Sheila intervenes. *$1.75 (2c) Doran
20–26313
The outstanding personages of this story are Denys Playfair, an Irishman with a family history that has made resentment towards the English governing classes a part of his inheritance; Sheila Farling, also Irish, slight, black-eyed, clever, full of the joy of life, and on occasion full of mischief, and scorn and a faculty for raillery; and Daphne Grayling, Sheila’s cousin, daughter of an old-fashioned mother who is keeping her in leading strings even to the choice of a husband for her, and who condemns her to a life of boredom and inactivity. Sheila’s exuberant spirit leads her to play providence for her friends. She engineers Denys into a political career, and noticing the blossoming out of Daphne under Denys’s friendship, does violence to her own feelings for him, while she engineers the two into a love compact. Fate intervenes in the form of a serious accident to Daphne’s ex-fiancé, which brings the latter to a realization that duty is stronger than love. It also intervenes to acquaint Denys with Sheila’s true feeling for him for when he collapses before her eyes from the effects of over-work and strain, her assumed indifference likewise collapses.
“Her delightful grandfather is one of the best characters and Sheila herself is irresistible.”
+ Booklist 16:245 Ap ’20
“Despite this slightness of plot, the story carries its own sentimental interest and is continually a matter of touch and go. Moreover the characters are delightful.” M. E. Bailey
+ − Bookm 51:205 Ap ’20 240w
“An earlier work has been resurrected from the obscurity of the novelist’s earlier career to share the success of his later books. In many cases the act is justified. But in Mr McKenna’s case it seems to us decidedly a mistake.”
− + Boston Transcript p7 Mr 24 ’20 220w