IT IS BETTER TO TELL. By Kathleen Coyle. (Cape. 7s.
ad.)--This novel has comparatively little incident, but is a moving. and (in spite of its somewhat theatrical setting) a convincing study of maternal love. Lydia Scarfs and Dion Tancred, a struggling dramatist, mate illegitimately in their young days In Ireland. Two children, Harold and Rain, are born to them, and Lydia, feeling that Dion would succeed better if he were free, then runs away with the two babies to Antwerp, where she opens a toy-shop. Years later, Harold and Ram, now adolescent, are connected with a literary circle in that city, and Tancred, who has become famous, is invited to lecture. Hospitality has to be found for him in Lydia's home. Lydia has told her-children nothing about their parent- age, and the story follows, with subtle analysis, her varying emotions as she watches both Rain and Harold, who himself has literary ambitions, falling under the spell of Tancred's charm. Comic relief is afforded by the well-sustained character of Lusi, the negro woman whom Tancred brings with him. At last all ends happily. Harold and Rain are drawn but the closer to their mother when they /earn the truth, and, while Lusi returns to her lawful husband, a boxer, Tancred and Lydia recover their old love for each other and agree to a marriage ceremony.
Previous page
