The Limit

Valentia is married to Romer who has a genius for love but finds her cousin, Harry de Freyne, who has a genius for lovemaking, more congenial. Their relationship skirts scandal, Romer is pinpricked by his mother into awareness and, in the end, Valentia, fully alerted to Harry's duplicity, appreciates the worth of her husband's love. There's an actress who marries, a courtship which bores its participants, a playwright's sated dalliance, an American who is humbly appreciative of British superiority, and an eminently marriageable daughter with a shrewd Mama -- all as sharply cut out as are the central characters. The author's association with the cultural world of her day- Wilde, James, Beerbohm, Beardsley et al -- is reflected in the high finish of both her story and her style. Caviar department.