The burglar and the blizzard

A young millionaire named Geoffrey Holland, concerned about a recent string of thefts in the locale, visits his country home in Hillsborough and surprises a burglar, in the form of his old schoolmate, Billy McVay. McVay convinces him to set out, in the midst of a blizzard, to rescue his sister, living nearby in a rundown shack, and wholly ignorant of his (McVay’s) career as a thief. Against his better judgement, Holland agrees, and finds himself falling in love at first sight with the beautiful Cecelia McVay. How can Holland discharge his duty to see McVay punished for his crimes, whilst also winning the love of the criminal’s sister…?A brief novella from Alice Duer Miller, an author previously known to me largely because of her collection, Are Women People? A Book Of Rhymes For Suffrage Times , which offers a poetic argument in favor of women’s suffrage, The Burglar and the Blizzard was first published in 1914. Somehow, perhaps because of the author’s support of a woman’s right to vote, I expected something a little less conventional from this holiday romance. When Geoffrey Holland is intrigued, at the beginning of the story, by reports of a woman’s possible involvement in the thefts, I wondered if we were in for a lady burglar. Alas, that was not to be, and the reader instead discovers a fairly traditional tale of a hapless (and very beautiful) young girl, and the wealthy, powerful man who falls (inexplicably) in love with her and decides to shield her from the unfortunate truth about her brother. I’ve nothing against traditional love stories, as it happens, but this one failed to entertain. I simply couldn’t muster much sympathy for the characters, or interest in their eventual fate