A Breeze of Morning
by . Macmillan, $3.50.
The author of The Fountain and Sparkenbroke again concerns himself with love of the more exalted sort, though readers of coarser grain than Mr. Morgan may be tempted to dismiss the proceedings as much ado about a pre-adolescent crush. Writing forty years after the events in the story, the narrator nostalgically describes the months when, as a thirteen-year-old schoolboy cramming for a scholarship, he fell in love with the Squire’s daughter‚ Rose, a bewitching creature of nineteen who nearly ran off with his sister’s fiancé. It is Mr. Morgan’s intent, among other things, to show us a boy’s glowing discovery of the world of poetry, learning, and love. But the problems of confecting Latin verse, and the drudgery of swotting for an examination, form a somewhat incongruous counterpoint to a romantic theme. The author’s prose, as always, is elegant and chaste; but his novel steers a faltering course between the ludicrous and sublime.