Arms and the Woman

A newspaper reporter's tight budget makes courtship an expensive business in Harold MacGrath's romance. John Winthrop recalls meeting Phyllis in her uncle's walled garden, then renewing their acquaintance three years later at Block Island. Their friendship draws him into wealthy New York society, where opera tickets and roses compete with breakfast and unpaid bills. His ambitions as a journalist sit alongside hopes of marriage and the possibility of a London assignment.

The story later brings Winthrop and his friend Dan Hillars into an encounter with a princess, a prince and a count at an inn. Personal attachments become entangled with rank, court etiquette and the threat of trouble with the authorities. Told through Winthrop's own recollections and brisk exchanges of dialogue, the novel mixes romantic longing with comic embarrassment and adventure. Its appeal lies in the contrast between a working reporter's practical worries and the formal world of wealth and royalty.