Here Richmond again does her usual interesting sketches of character and inclusion of moral, ethical and religious themes. Her take on the debate about the United States’ decision on whether or not to become actively involved in World War I was a view of the issue then. It paints an interesting picture reflecting, perhaps, the state of mind in the nation as represented in George M. Cohan’s famous 1917 tune, “Over There”. The novel’s perspective was welcomed by readers in 1919, as people in the U.S. worked to process the years of war and recover and create a positive view of what had happened. It is an interesting historical romance novel.

Starts: THEIR first sight of each other—Red and Black—was across the space which stretches between pulpit and pew. It’s sometimes a wide space, and impassable; again, it’s not far, and the lines of communication are always open. In this case, neither of them knew, as yet, just what the distance was.

Black—Robert McPherson Black—if you want his full name, had been a bit nervous in the vestry where he put on his gown. He had been preaching only five years, and that in a Southern country parish, when a visiting committee of impressive looking men had come to listen to him—had come again—and once more—and then had startled him with a call to the big suburban town and the fine old, ivy-grown church generally known as the “Stone Church.”