Love and the Soul Hunters by John Oliver Hobbes (1902)

I am very much enjoying Hobbes' 'recovery' from her perhaps Anthony Hope-inspired, perhaps simply Catholic, perhaps Wilde Trial-wary detour around the turn of the century. This one is a confirmation of her return to her second manner - a tale of Edwardian high society, centred on love and decorated with high aphorism. It also engages what must have been a key subject for the author, given her background - the interconnection and rival status of America in British society at that time. The key American player here is the mother of the female protagonist, who is known as La Belle Valentine; a forcible, handsome and blowsy woman of mixed reputation who would have been perfectly played by Ava Gardner in her prime. She left her dreary English gentleman husband years ago, and hasn't seen her daughter since she was a child. Seeing her again in a hotel in Salsomaggiore for the first time as an adult, she is struck by her daughter's beauty and intelligence. Also staying at the hotel is someone whose profile almost seems a stock one for this period, the exiled prince of Urseville-Beylestein, Paul. He has with him his trusted secretary-assistant, Felshammer. Paul is charming, good looking and well capable of making women feel delighted that he's fixated on them. Felshammer is colder and less appealing, but more intense. Both of these men fall for Clementine, Valentine's daughter; Paul in his usual vein, with ultimately superficial play at the heart of his approach, while Felshammer falls heavily because unaccustomedly. Clementine is gifted some of the best conversational lines in the piece in her awareness of Paul's lack of seriousness (despite his protestations otherwise) and her verbal beating off of Felshammer's unwanted intensity. As fortunes swell and wane and the centre of action moves to London, Clementine confirms to herself that neither of their 'loves' is what she wants, but that, if Paul was able to drop his attitude of flippancy and value her above and beyond other playful conquests, she would more than welcome his advances. She's besotted with him, but also understands his weaknesses and is determined not to capitulate. Felshammer she respects, but cannot bear the idea of love in relation to him. Amongst the lesser characters gambling debts pile up, financial deals are lost and made, trips to America are mooted, society hostesses fight among themselves...and then, in a wooded lane in Kew, Paul is shot while coming away from seeing Clementine. It soon transpires that Felshammer's jealousy has overmastered him. Paul's injury is life-threatening, and this is what he needs to make him realise what he needs to change in his life. He finally renounces all claim to the Urseville-Beylestein throne (much to his dragon-mother's disgust) and opens his heart fully to Clementine. Felshammer feels he must secretly come clean as the shooter, and the two men reach a semi-respectful and very private agreement never to see one another again. This one has a few faultlines, a major one being that we don't really get a sense of Paul's change of heart near the end. But it's still highly entertaining, and the aphoristic prose is a thing to savour.