Quarrel

THUNDERSTORM--G. B. Stern--Knopf ($2.50). Mistress of many moods, the author of Debatable Ground and The Matriarch (Mrs. Geoffrey Holdsworth of England) well merits the distinction of her pseudonymous initials (G. B. S.) Few writers of equal taste can so deftly thread the fine needle of discernment with the wiry fibres of reality. Thunderstorm begins as an idyll--an intelligent young English couple basking beneath the comic benevolence of their Italian servants, emotional 'Vanna and heroic Ettore. Basking with them are semi-permanent guests, a durable male friend, a spirited girl cousin. To the baskers blows a breeze--news of a desirable position for the host in England. A jog is indicated in everyone's life. Clouds follow the breeze, each basker having a selfish reaction to this jog. Thunderheads follow clouds, each basker lying to himself about his selfish reaction. A storm bursts, with rumblings of anger, shaft of malice, gales of recrimination, deluges of tears. The sun reappears when, for a motive of her own, a delicious minor character--the spinster sister of the durable male friend --shoehorns some one else into the host's desirable London position. As basking is resumed, it is observed that "every quarrel, however trivial, contains all the quarrels that are older than the hills."