His Lordship's Leopard

Cecil Banborough wants the newspapers to notice his novel, The Purple Kangaroo, but New York in April 1898 has its attention fixed on war with Spain. When he overhears two men discussing his book, he mistakes their interest for literary admiration. They actually want its title as a password for secret communications. Marchmont, a journalist nearby, finds material for a very different kind of story. David Dwight Wells builds his comedy from this gap between personal vanity and public excitement.

The action reaches England, where Cecil's father, the Bishop of Blanford, encounters American visitors with unsettling manners. An actor blunders through cathedral terminology, while Mrs. Mackintosh treats the bishop's dignity with cheerful familiarity. Quick exchanges and crossed meanings give the novel its pace. Readers interested in newspaper satire and social comedy will find both in scenes that turn respectable conversation into an awkward performance.