THE TREASURE IS THE ROSE

In a crumbling 11th century castle hedged with roses, the power of a young widow's gentleness tames a trio of thugs and repels a haughty baron. Since her husband's death in battle Ariane has lived alone with a loyal nurse and a companionable mouse; the outlaws (their names are Toadflax, Ragwort and Yarrow) come upon the place at night and threaten to kill her if she does not produce a rumored treasure, but the lady's compassion so disarms them that when a treasure does turn up they stay to protect her. Cunningham's heavy romanticism is a little easier to take than the drippy sentimentality of her recent Tallow stories, but as usual her talent for simulating a trance exceeds her sensibility, so that from the opening disclaimer that "To tell about Ariane is to try to grow a rose on paper without the touch of sun and moon, rain and snow that make it real and growing," she comes as dose to parody as she does to sharing a vision.