Sword and Gown

Harry Molyneux welcomes the warmth of a December afternoon on the Mediterranean shore, while Royston Keene meets the scenery with dry indifference. The two former cavalry comrades have an unequal but lasting friendship: Harry trusts and admires Keene, whose strength and authority dominate their exchanges. Harry's illness lends urgency to this quiet opening, and his wife Fanny shares with Keene the management of his affairs. George A. Lawrence introduces his novel through these closely observed personal ties.

A later confrontation tests another kind of authority. When an angry man snatches Cecil Tresilyan's parasol, the chaplain Mr. Fullarton struggles to offer support, and his child turns to Cecil for protection. The narrator uses the incident to examine courage, composure and the expectations placed on a protector. Rich descriptions of the coast accompany pointed commentary on human behavior. Readers of British fiction will find military manners, uneven loyalties and social judgments explored through conversation and moments of pressure.