CHARITY STRONG

Possibly Miss Allis' very sense of authenticity hampers her characterizations, her pace of plot, and for this reason she is unlikely to roll up big sales. But her novels have a quiet charm, and this is, perhaps, her best -- least limited by use of historical characters. Her two central figures are Charity, daughter of a hard-shelled old river captain, one of those responsible for prohibiting ""profane"" entertainment in the state of Connecticut back in the early part of the 19th century: and Perry Green, bastard and half breed Indian, who leaves his native Connecticut for the even greater challenge of New York, where his hopes of becoming a sculptor seem blighted. Charity wants only to be a singer -- and in opera -- and manages to get herself talked about, suspect and victim of jealousy -- and finally, to escape, marries a stranger, who turns out to be already married to a woman in Albany. New York gives Charity a brief and tantalizing glimpse of the world she would enter -- and ultimately cholera solves her marital problem, and she returns, ""neither wife nor widow"" to her home, where Perry comes to her and they marry and face new opportunity in the old world.