Page images
PDF
EPUB

tip. Her mother loved it because it was so little, and had tried so hard not to be a nose at all. Mary Makebelieve used to lift her timidly curious eye and smile in deprecation of her nasal shortcomings, and then her mother would kiss the dejected button and vow it was the dearest, loveliest bit of a nose that had ever been seen.

"Big noses suit some people," said Mrs. Makebelieve," but they do not suit others and one would not suit you dearie. They go well with black-haired people and very tall people, military gentlemen, judges and apothecaries, but small, fair folk cannot support great noses. I like my own nose," she continued. "At school, when I was a little girl, the other girls used to laugh at my nose but I always liked it, and after a time other people came to like it too."

The deliberate, delicate charm of the writing cannot be well instanced in short extracts but is very apparent in the whole volume. And it is good to know that the dreams with which both Mary and her mother solaced their poverty bade fair all to come true in the end. But there is no real end to "The Charwoman's Daughter," rather is there some prospect that Mr. Stephens at a later day may continue his history of the Makebelieves to the gain and pleasure of his readers.

"THE CROCK OF GOLD."-By James Stephens. (Macmillan and Co., Ld.)

THE "Crock of Gold " is an enchanted story in which gnomes and fairies play a most reasonable and happy part and mortals, to some extent, attain the wisdom of the fairy peoples. No short review could even remotely shadow the fascination and poetry of Mr. Stephens' latest book or could do justice to the wisdom and the wonder of it. It gives entrance to a most strange and entrancing world of gods and elves; Pan with his Pipes is made manifest, the lonely god of love is proved the conqueror of Pan, who is but desire: sin is not sin as we would tabulate and explain it—but an essential part of life itself, and not by any means to be despitefully divided from that life.

The characters which should become dear comrades of the understanding lover of books are many. The Thin Woman of Inis Magrath, with her fourteen hundred curses, and her comprehensive malediction wherein policemen are exhibited naked before the blushes of Eternity, is a most admirable witch mother to Seumas and Brigid Beg, those children of the woods who understand the talk of birds and beasts and who, when first they discover sunlight, are afraid to stay in it too long for fear they may become cooked.

The story of the clerk in the jail is wonderful in its minute sincerity, that poor, stricken clerk who formed the D, when writing letters beginning "My dear Sir," with "Painful accurate slowness elaborating and thickening the up and down strokes, and being troubled when he had to leave that letter for the next one: he built the next letter by hair strokes, and would start on the third with hatred."

Then there are the Leprecauns and half the fairy host of Ireland to make memorable the book and take us into a beautiful and strange world. Many notable passages might be quoted. In the contest for possession of Caitilin Murrachu between Pan and Love, the greater god speaks thus of men and women :

"The desire of a man shall be Beauty, but he has fashioned a slave in his mind and has called it Virtue. The desire of a woman shall be Wisdom, but she has fashioned a beast in her blood and has called it courage, but the real virtue is courage, and the real courage is liberty and the real liberty is wisdom and wisdom is the son of Thought and Intuition, and his names also are Innocence and Adoration and Happiness.”

*

*

*

*

*

And in a little time Caitilin Murrachu went with her companion across the brow of the hill, and she did not go with him because she had understood his words, nor because he was naked and unashamed, but only because his need of her was very great, and therefore she loved him, and stayed his feet in the way and was concerned lest he should stumble."

The charm of this book cannot be conveyed by the quotation of such isolated passages. It is a book to accept with thanksgiving and read with understanding. To the being who asks more of life than that it should be a mere material existence it will open doors into a spiritual world which yet is delightfully human; it will suggest ideals and fancies of a rare beauty, and, when its covers are closed, will long be appreciatively remembered.

THE HALO.-By Baroness Von Hutten. (Methuen and Co.)

THIS is a cheap edition, price one shilling, and those who missed this clever, trenchant story when originally published will do well to secure it now. The book concerns the impracticable love of Lady Bridget Mead and Victor Joyselle, genius of the violin, citizen of the world and formerly Norman peasant.

MIRAGE.-By E. Temple Thurston. (Methuen and Co.)

ANOTHER reprint worthy of note is Mirage by E. Temple Thurston (Messrs. Methuen and Co.). Though lacking something of the exquisite word-painting of The Greatest Good in the World, another of E. Temple Thurston's works, it has his familiar charm of tender philosophy and spiritual characterisation. But Temple Thurston is always sufficiently poignant and sad. His books should, of necessity, end happily ever after, whereas Mirage comes close to bitter heart break.

MRS. LANCELOT: A COMEDY OF ASSUMPTIONS.-By Maurice Hewlett. (Macmillan and Co., Ld.)

THIS Comedy of Assumptions verges perilously near tragedy at times for it concerns primarily the obligation of a woman, married but not mated, to forego the love she learns too late for the sake of a man little worthy of the sacrifice. The character of Mrs. Lancelot, the woman who faces the temptation and triumphs in surrendering to it, is a delighttender, passionate, a type of the true mate and perfect lover.

About her exquisite personality revolve the three men concerned the lover, the husband and the man who loves her. The characters of the three are sharply contrasted and magnificently limned. It is one of Mr. Hewlett's great merits that his people develop with the years: they are not pigeonholed and catalogued in the beginning remaining true to their definitions throughout three hundred pages and all experience. The characters in Mrs. Lancelot grow as the years pass, learn charity and understanding in the stress of life, suffer, and grow to discriminate the verities.

The Duke, the man who loves Mrs. Lancelot, is a rare character, iron-like, almost brutal save when Mr. Hewlett, with his own inimitable grace, reveals the weaknesses of a great man; the lover is a wild poet, intolerant of all sham, fiercely resentful of civilization as opposed to nature, a visionary, dowered with an overwhelming and passionate devotion for his love. The husband is the opposite-cold, calculating withal, tormented by a dumb love for his wife.

Mrs. Lancelot is altogether a fine book. Much of the dialogue is a delight and the whole volume is quick with the passion and great charm of the author, charged with high courage a book which is an artistic triumph and of satisfying humanity. A less courageous author might well have made his finale more of a compromise to the prevailing conscience, but with Mr. Hewlett the gospel of love triumphant is sacrosanct and the volume closes in a scene of true artistry and power.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Accounts relating to the Trade by Land of British India with Foreign Countries for the two months, April and May 1912, compared with corresponding period of the years 1910-11. Government of India.

Accounts relating to the Trade by Land of British India with Foreign Countries for the three months, April to June 1912, compared with corresponding period of the years 1910-11. Government of India.

Accounts relating to the Sea-borne Trade and Navigation of British India for the month of August 1912 and the five months, 1st April to 31st August 1912, compared with corresponding period of the years 1910-11. Government

of India.

Annual Returns of the Hospitals and Dispensaries in Bengal for the year 1911 with Notes. Government of Bengal. Annual Report of the Punjab Veterinary College and of the Civil Veterinary Department, Punjab, for the years 1911-12. Punjab Government.

Annual Report on the Police Administration of the Town of Calcutta and its Suburbs for the year 1911. Government of Bengal.

Annual Statistical Returns and Short Notes on Vaccination in Bengal for the years 1911-12. Government of Bengal. Final Report of the Third Regular Settlement of the Delhi District, 1906-10. Punjab Government.

Fiftieth Annual Report of the Government Cinchona Plantations and Factory in Bengal for the years 1911-12. Government of Bengal.

First Forecast of the Cotton Crop of Bengal, 1912-13. Government of Bengal,

« PreviousContinue »