* * * * *
Baroness ORCZY's romance of old Cambrai, _Flower o' the Lily_ (HODDER
AND STOUGHTON), should not be regarded as in any way bearing upon the
more modern history of that remarkable city. It has nothing to do with
our war; it has a war of its own, a rapid affair of bows and arrows,
scaling ladders and such desperate situations as can be, and were,
saved by the arrival of the right man, single-handed, in the right
place at the right moment. Familiar as is his type in novels of
this adventurous kind, I think I shall never tire of the consummate
swordsman hero who impersonates, for political and matrimonial ends, a
man of infinitely higher degree but far less real worth than himself,
handling the vicarious business with an incredible adroitness, but
mistakenly carrying by storm the love of the lady for himself. The
lady is so confoundedly attractive in these circumstances, possibly
because there is about them a tonic which lends additional colour
to the feminine cheek and a new brilliance to the eye. And, however
bitter may be the first moment when the true personalities are
divulged, it all comes right in the end.
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