A WREATH OF ROSES

Again with the grace and gentle discernment, the modulation of mood which qualified A View of the Harbor, and At Mrs. Lippincote's, this new novel, which tends toward tragedy rather than comedy, is equally successful. Camilla Hill, a school teacher, returning to the little English village where she has spent many summer with her closest friend, Liz, finds the harmony of the past broken by Liz' marriage and her baby. For even if the more capricious Liz is not happy in her marriage to a staid clergyman, the fact of that marriage and the baby gives Camilla -- in the dignified self- discipline and aridity of her spinsterdom- pause. Attracted by the looks, and the casual ease of Richard, whom she meets on the train, Camilla indulges her infatuation in spite of her initial mistrust, is taken in by his self-pitying fantasies, loses all sense of caution. It is only, at a last meeting, when she realizes that he has killed a girl, and that he may kill again, does she make her final escape...Affecting in its drama, expert in its execution, this is for the discerning reader.