THE LARK ON THE WING

Titled to reflect the progression in one of Kit's most cherished folk-songs, this catapults her out of the nest and into her own when her father dies leaving her penniless. ""Thou ought to have taken up singing"" were among his first and last unknowing words to her, so she moves to London with Pony and Helen determined to study with Papa Andreas while supporting herself as a typist. Amidst practice and work hours, lessons and emotional upheavals, Kit enjoys the society of the Gramercie cousins and the young men who happen about. Her growth as a woman and as a singer is developed with the same warmth that runs through the first book, but a maturer girl and a maturer story evolve here. Kit is equally engaging, Papa Andreas is particularly rememberable; as before, the characters tower over the events in their isolated lives. Readers with a musical bent will find in this song-filled second of three a novel that can stand alone, and readers of The Lark in the Morn will find in it a delighting afternoon.