MRS. BLAIR

Superior woman's fiction, upper grade light romance, with an unusual setting. The opening gives a clever and mystifying build-up of Mrs. Blair, foremost painter of Chinese life, and leads one to expect more than the story unfolds. There is perhaps too much of the culture of the East; Mrs. Blair is not always as intriguing as you are told she is, nor are her much touted indiscretions particularly indiscreet. In the last analysis it is a love story pure and simple, with some wise and witty writing, and ingenious descriptions -- and it holds the interest throughout.