Phyllis Dudley rents her cousin's London rooms while he is hiding from his creditors, and on a lark tries on some of his clothes, to discover that with her cropped hair from a recent illness she makes a plausible young man. Creating a male alter-ego in the next flat, she gets into various scrapes and courts a struggling sculptor who fails to penetrate her disguise.

This is an unusual offering from Freeman, best known for his scientific detective, Dr. Thorndyke; where Thorndyke can be plodding and didactic, Phyllis is breezy and charming throughout. Set at a turning point in women's role in society, Phyllis looks back to traditional propriety while consciously -- but innocently -- violating convention at every turn. ( )