Back in Society

Chesney wraps up The Poor Relation series ( Colonel Sandhurst to the Rescue ) with this enjoyable story. Featuring several old series hands--blustery and sarcastic Sir Philip, the still unmarried Miss Tonks and Lady Fortescue, the eccentric hoteliers' concerned mother hen--the story hinges on the group's efforts to help their new guest, young Lady Jane Fremney, after she proves unable to pay her bills and attempts suicide. As in the first five entries in this popular Regency series, the plotting is lushly tangled and rich in romance (Lady Jane, who's run away from home to avoid an arranged marriage, is forced to choose between a stable but boring Englishman and an unpredictable but dashing French count). Though her language sometimes shifts disconcertingly from the formal, even antique (``she preferred to stay wrapped in dull numb misery that would make what she had to do the easier'') to the colloquial and modern (one character ``put the pistol in his mouth and blew his brains out''), Chesney delivers a pleasurable farewell to a memorable cast of heartwarming characters. (Aug.)