Kate Chase, daughter of Salmon Chase, was the never satisfied spark plug in his meteoric career a career which brought him to the verge of presidential nomination, achieved a cabinet post as Secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War, then as Chief Justice. Her story with its endless ambitions, social leadership and a socially unacceptable marriage failure, is told against a minutely detailed period portrait and as competently handled fictionalized biography, is fresh and unhackneyed.