Happy Return

Mr. Churchill's return to office has brought new hope to the tax-burdened denizens of England's most hospitable county. These garrulous deans and kind-hearted peeresses, perplexed young men too poor to declare their love, squires with a nice taste in port and botany, sensitive maidens and distracted domestics, pursue their duties and diversions with a lighter heart. We meet many well-loved friends now grown slightly older. Eric Swann, who used to help Tony Morland with his trains, still wears his disconcerting horn-rims; he is now looking for a wife. Charles Belton has one half-promised, but delays pressing his claim. Lady Lufton, beginning to recover from her widowhood, wishes her son Ludovic were settled. Mrs. Thirkell uses all her willfulness, wit, and edged acumen in bringing another batch of Barsetshire affairs to the happiest conclusion.