Winifred Halsted

[from front dust jacket flap] As refreshing as a Tom Collins on a hot day is this witty and entertaining first novel by Winifred Halsted. No inhibitions of an unhappy childhood, no zest for social reform, mar the lighthearted gaiety with which it is written and yet, beneath the sophisticated dialogue, there lies a shrewd understanding of character and a real sympathy for the problems of present-day life.

There's Miranda Wick with her job in the Hamilton National Bank and her disconcerting reactions to the thought of marriage; Mr. Wick, her father, whose chronic pessimism as to the future of the country and the republican party results from his habit of reading both the Herald Tribune and the "Times*'s editorials; his more volatile wife who insisted on breakfasting in bed rather than face the hazards of early morning conversation with her hurried family. There's Miranda's friend Evelyn in her Greenwich Village apartment and Barton Piper, who had a remarkable gift for complicating everyone's life but his own, which contrasted unfavorably with the steady New England reasonableness of Adam Gates. These are people worth knowing: from the bank's first Get-Acquainted party to the unpropitious day of Miranda's wedding they will amuse you with their recognizable foibles.