THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE

From England, a fourth novel (they have not all appeared here) is a controlled and delicate domestic drama and it is the well-regulated and well-established marriage of Imogen Grosham which runs its footrace against the intrusion of a neighbor, Blanche Silcox. Imogen, a rather hazy romantic, is a hovering and admiring wife to an older husband, Evelyn, a man of considerable presence, authority and austerity. But her pretty face and unquestionable devotion has never quite satisfied him. Still and all it is inconceivable that can be attracted to Blanche, an ungainly spinster of fifty with rather forceful virtues-she farms, fishes, shoots, and conducts her many affairs capably. Imogen's first miserable misgivings about Evelyn and Blanche give way before her sense of incredulity that he can prefer this type of woman; Blanche's slow encroachment and appropriation extends to Evelyn's conduct of his law practice; and finally, in the face of his admission that he loves Blanche- and will only give her up out of duty, Imogen makes the full surrender to the situation which is by now irrevocable.... Miss Jenkins' many, fine drawn perceptions, which range from irony to sympathy, and which find a perfect expression in a scrupulous rose, sharpen her fable of faulty misconceptions and fallible emotions.