Gloriously Beautiful

Squirming Purple Worms Obstruct the Course of True Love

"Of all the girls in Shawnmoor College the most beautiful and most audacious was Myra Brooks . . . too gloriously beautiful ever to be let alone."

Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth? Rosa Nouchette Carey? Charles Garvice? No. But their most recent successor in the paper-back-thriller field--the anonymous authors of The True Story Series, published by Macfadden Publications, Inc. Hail to the two-bit novel redivivus! The passage that tops this column is from The Truth About a College Girl.

To return to Myra--Myra was certainly a knockout. "In her cheeks was the claret glow of buoyant youth. Indeed she was throbbing like a motor with the spirit of youth." Just think of it! Throbbing like a motor! What a girl!

On the way to New York, she met Floyd Hamilton. "His clothes were rough with that aristocratic ruggedness which only a gentleman dare attempt." Also he was an aerial photographer and the son of a Judge.

But the course of true love was not to run smooth by any means. In the big, wicked city, Myra interviewed her father's villainous lawyer, Scott Brantly. "Can you stand a shock-- or several severe ones? Your father and your aunt are at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean," he announced. "Widows and orphans are execrating your father's name all over the land-- he has made them lose their all." Pretty hard to take, all that, but not a patch on what was to follow. The wicked Brantly grew amorous. "His lips . . . resembled squirming purple worms. 'I'll show you!'" he snarled. He was a desperate man. They struggled. A marble statuette of Purity appropriately fell on Brantly and beaned him. Myra was safe--but she must flee--yes, at once --for if the police should find her with Brantly's body ... So she immediately went to the Plaza.

Further chapter headings and illustration captions tell the story. Her Hero of the Train, This Young Lady Is Innocent, Was She Safe?, Floyd's Stricken Eyes Stopped Her Mad Fury, The Stockholders' Meeting, My Father's Daughter, Hurrah for Myra!, Spies, Fair Means or Foul, and then, at the last, "in that brilliantly gold, blue and white symphony of decoration which was the music room of the Hamilton home. "'Will you marry me?' asked Floyd, eagerly.

"Her fragrant hair lay against his breast." S.V.B.