VALLEY OF THE VINES

South Africa takes on softer tones- and a sentimental timbre-in this story of Diou Donne, a large wine farm, a once great inheritance held together by the aging, indomitable Grannie Constance de Valois as a legacy- presumably- for her only granddaughter, Merle. But it is Roxano adopted ward, for whom it is a home to be safeguarded, against the commercial encroachments of the Afrikaan- Krifti- and whose affection and admiration for Grannie Con is far stronger than that of Merle. Growing up there, Roxane falls in love at 15 with Hal Fairmead- a newspaper correspondent, and this love also does not diminish although Hal is to marry a famous ballerina, Alexa Rome. Roxane sees Hal again in England-his marriage already threatened by the child Alexa did not want. She leaves him to go home and accept the faithful devotion Thinus, an Afrikaan- and Grannie Con's farm manager- offers her. Alexa suicides and Hal returns to Africa; a fire ruins the already jeopardized Dieu Roxane learns that she is really the (illegitimate) granddaughter of Grannie Con; and Thinus steps aside- for Hal-- all this completes the cycle of events here and abroad in which Roxane a very gentle heroine- is an appealing figure. There's a certain leisure- and luxuriance- as well.