Drains

MR. CHILVESTER'S DAUGHTERS--Edith Olivier--Viking ($2.50).

Authoress Olivier has filled a long-felt want by writing a whole novel on the entrancingly English subject of drains (U. S.: plumbing). It opens quietly enough in a cathedral close, where a Mr. Chilvester inhabits a Christopher-Wrennish house and quietly tyrannizes over his two daughters, flotsam of two relicts dead in childbed. There is an odor of more than sanctity about Mr. Chilvester's house. Yes, drains! First to notice it is not any inhabitant of the house but the Dean's nephew, young Christopher, who as an architect takes an interest in such things. He also takes an interest in naive young Emily Chilvester, a more academic interest in Invalid Sister Lilian's mystical drawings.

When Christopher kisses Emily she falls in love with him and is promptly expelled from the house by her father. When she learns that men betray she rushes off to drown herself, but Invalid Lilian makes a huge last effort and saves her, at the cost of her own life. Old Mr. Chilvester takes Emily back again. Her true Chilvester blood coming out at last, Emily stands shoulder to shoulder with her parent while he fights a hopelessly losing struggle against the combined forces of society. His efforts sap the old man; merciful death comes for him before he realizes that the Chilvester House will, after all, have to be equipped with drains.

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