Word: vane
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...story is built up about Abigail Vane, reared under the stiff tutelage of her aunt, Clemency Vane, and the loving devotion of her wealthy grandfather, Michael Hare. In her teens she is occupied with nothing but her social career, but the war brings a sudden change and Abigail, like "a true Vane", goes to Europe as a canteen worker. After the armistice she meets in a convalescent hospital her old lover who is now married to her best friend, and she feels it her duty to care for him and nurse him back to health. Meanwhile her father has gone...
...this has been loosely strung on an almost insignificant plot in an attempt to bring unity out of the mass of slightly related material. In this the author has failed. At first the reader is absorbed with the skillful presentation of the Vane household in New England, and one is pleased with the agreeable contrast in the portrayal of Michael Hare and his luxurious surroundings on Fifth Avenue. But it is easy to become impatient, as unimportant characters and situations are introduced merely for the purpose of creating new pictures, making it hard to follow a main thread through...
...often the reader is reminded of the author's presence. His fondness for allusions and vague metaphors frequently spoils an otherwise delectable description, making it seem heavy and out of place. Mr. Cutler has succeeded best in his portrayal of the two extremes of character, the proper Clemency Vane, who looks ever backward to her ancestors, and Michael Hare, whose only hope and happiness is his grand-daughter. As a story the novel is not a success, but it is at least interesting in its attempt to reflect American life
...gilded grasshopper, astride the top of the weather-vane, is about all that remains of the original Faneuil Hall in Boston. But Boston, unlike some other cities, retains a certain pride in its past, and the City has recently appropriated a sum of $150,000 to restore this "cradle of liberty" to something nearer its original countinence. The once-honored wells of the present structure are in large part to be torn down and carted away, and the old edifice that Samuel Adams knew will be reconstructed as accurately as possible...
...raked out into the sunlight and made to appear typical of Boston's public affairs during the past few years. The police strike, too, is dragged out of the retirement it was beginning to earn, and colored with recent cases of constabulary misdeeds, it is set up as the vane that should have shown which way the wind was blowing several seasons ago. The conclusion reached is an interesting one, and seems logically sound. Boston people are perfectly aware of these conditions; if they not only tolerate them, but encourage them by electing such men as Peiletier, Tufts, and Curley...