Here's a departure for Norah Lofts. It fits into no category associated with her- neither the exquisite, almost whimsical, type of book that first introduced her to an American public (I Met a Gypsy). nor the period, picaresque novels which followed (The Golden Fleece, etc.). The substance of this is unusual; it is the story of a century and more ago in England's farming country, and of a dairymaid, head girl at a pleasant farm, with friendly fellow workers and generous employers. Araminta could have had her pick of the lads, but was determined to stay unwed if it meant that she would be a laboring man's wife, facing poverty all her life. So when Jan's attractions grew too potent, she threw up her job, and went to another county, to work for higher pay (four pounds a year and keep;) on a model farm. And there she found what it was like to live with fear, -- fear that a spot of dirt be found, a rule broken, a crumb eaten outside the rules, and fear of a mistress who was driven by perverted passion to close to madness. Then into the life of this Cinderella of the dairy came a Prince- and a story that carried conviction wound up with a murder and a fairytale ending that this reader, at least, found wholly unreal. But it was good reading, often charming and attractive, and a novel setting- through two thirds of the tale.