Carlota has inherited from her Italian grandmother great beauty, a marvelous voice and a fortune in jewels. But her New York teacher, after giving her all the technique he can, admits that her voice lacks the emotional quality that moves and stirs the hearer. Her soul still slumbers. Ward, her wealthy patron, tries to awaken it, but only succeeds in arousing her animosity. Then she meets Griffeth Ames, and her teacher at once catches the new note of power in her voice. Griffeth persuades her to sing in a society presentation of his opera, and to grace the occasion she wears her grandmother’s rubies. Instantly the international spies who have been on the lookout for the jewels are “on the job.” They try to rob her, but the various agents doublecross one another, and Carlota’s inheritance is finally returned to her. But the jewels have lost all charm for her, and she gladly turns over their value to the starving children of the old world, feeling herself rich enough in Griffeth’s love.
“The story has a slow, graceful, feminine movement that carries one eagerly to ‘the end.’ More life might have been bestowed upon the characters by having kept them in action while off-scene.”
+ − N Y Evening Post p10 O 30 ’20 150w
“There is an exuberance, a delight in the contrasts and the juxtapositions of life, a quick reaction to beauty wherever glimpsed that make the reading of this book a pleasant thing even though it is crude and obvious in many spots.”
+ N Y Times p25 D 19 ’20 320w
FORSEY, MAUDE S. Jack and me. il *$1.50 (5c) Lippincott
A story for children about a little boy and girl who live in London and spend their summer holidays in Dorset. It tells in a simple way of home and school, of Christmas celebrations, of an older sister’s wedding, etc., and reads like a book of reminiscences of a real childhood.
FORSTER, EDWARD MORGAN. Where angels fear to tread. *$2 (3½c) Knopf
20–3675