Blaze of Beauty

DARK STAR--Lorna Moon--Bobbs Merrill ($2.50).

Born under a dark star, Nancy Pringle never knew whether it was the Master of Fassefern who had sired her, or Willie Weams, the groom. Divot Meg, the village's woman, out of compassion for Nancy, swore it was the master, then strangled Nancy's mother lest she quaver her own doubts in the matter. Others, less generous, preferred to believe it was the groom; hoped thereby to establish superiority over the spirited little orphan. The flaccid minister took her in; his wife sanctimoniously bullied her; his old mother defended her in malicious warfare with the wife.

This dismal childhood was brightened by thought of Harvey Brune, "the whistling boy." All night once he had played the kirk organ while she blew the bellows. At dawn, annoyed that the blowing stopped, he clambered down to find her fainted from exhaustion. Years later he accepted quite as mercilessly her bright offering of love, only to fling it aside for his music.

Nancy had one defense. Other disillusioned Fasseferns had flung themselves over the Rossorty cliffs into the boiling sea--Nancy herself remembered the white-haired master in scarlet hunting-coat madly spurring his ash-white horse over the cliff. So Nancy spurred herself and jumped, knowing as she did so that no groom's child could be so brave.

Dark Star is a first novel of impressive calibre.