The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-09 00:00:00

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 9, 1858.

outline of the story. "My Lady" is Lady Um-
phraville, wife of Sir Philip Umphraville, and
residing when the story opens at lleathcote-hall,
in Sussex. With her are her five children,
Hugh, Rothes, and Harry—Evelyn and Edie.
The eldest son fiery and impatient—the second
quiet, strong, and self•possessed—Evelyn (aged
seventeen) tender, affectionate, and weak—the
other two, children. At the adjoining parsonage
lives the rector, Mr. llardwicke, his two maiden
sisters, and his niece Minnie, a clever, pretty,
scheming girl of twenty. Sir Philip Umphraville
is in London.

Suddenly the news arrives that Sir Philip has
run away with a friend's wife, and the effect of
the intelligence upon the family circle at Heath-
cote is told powerfully and, we should say, truth-
fully. For some time, however, matters progress
in their usual course, the only event of impor-
tance being the arrival at lleathcote of a north-
country cousin, Susan Mitfbrd, with whom Ilugh
straightway falls in love, proposes to, and
becomes engaged to in a very short space of time.
At the end of the first volume Sir Philip Umphra-
vine returns home. Here, again, we have a
scene, of which, if it is not faithful to life, we may
safely say that it ought to be.

In the second volume My Lady leaves lleath-
cote with her daughter, and takes up her abode at
Westwood, a few miles from her husband's home,
on a distinct understanding with him that she is
not to be molested, and that the sons are to be
allowed to visit her. Hugh goes to Oxford, Rothes
to Rugby, and matters are now supposed to pro-
gress quietly for some months. Sir Philip, how-
ever, is member for the adjoining borough of
Hustings, and his separation from his wife, and
Hugh's engagement to Susan Mitford, affording
topics of sarcasm to his opponents at an approach.
ing general election, hasten on the catastrophe of
the story. We must retrace our steps for a moment
to account for Hugh's betrothal to his cousin
becoming a theme of popular invective. Susan
had been accompanied to Heathcote by a middle-
aged maiden aunt, Miss Margaret Latimer, whom
we cannot describe better than the author her-
self has done :

Aunt Margaret, wh3 rather desired to be named so by all
her y',ung acquaintances, and quite took up the part with
the intention of elevating and giving it dignity, was a
handsome cud well-bred woman, a little over forty. She
was clever, intellectual, and accomplished, somewhat
given to literature, and a great social reformer, with " very
strong opinions" upon the lending questions of the day.
Married people of all degrees and classes she took under
her patronage, and was very learned in the causes of ma-
trimonial discord and in the remedies for the same ; her
regard for youthful love passages %vac. much less urgent,
and she was no great matchmaker, but the duties of wives
and husbands towards each other were her strong point,
and the conjugal relation her favourite subject. Bow hus-
bands were to be won from those amiable sulks in which
the animal is prone to take refuge ; how wives were to be
eared of petulance and pettishness ; how one and the other
might be led astray by little and little, were topics which
she had deeply studied ; and a domestic feud was the fa.
vomite spurt of the lady, who felt at all times the impor-
twice of her own interference as the judicious friend of
both parties, seeing over their heads, as a spectator fondly
fancies, the consequences to each. Lady Umphraville's
present position was a tempting lure to Miss Latimer; she
hastened at once, on hearing of it, to bring comfort,
advice, and sympathy to her afflicted friend.

True to her instincts, no sooner does Aunt Mar-
garet hear of the engagement in question than
she hastens to break it off by informing Susan
that there is insanity in her family, and appealing
to her unselfish feelings to release llugh from his
fatal promise. As the author well observes, this
opportunity of " self-sacrifice" would have been
eagerly clutched at by many sentimental young
ladies. But Susan was of different stuff. Sound
sense is described as her distinguishing charac-
teristic : she refuses to pledge herself to any line
of conduct in the matter, and resolves to abide
by the decision of llugh and " My Lady." Hugh's
reply is, of course, what every one will foresee,
but My Lady wavers for an instant, and it
requires the injudicious interference of Aunt
Margaret to make her a confirmed advocate of
the young people. The last-named good lady,
incensed at the rejection of her advice, makes a
confidante of Minnie Ilardwicke, who had long
nourished designs against the affections of the
heir of Heathcote. Minnie contrives to insi-
nuate to her new friend that she has been Mused,
thereby giving her a fresh reason for opposing
the match between Hugh and Susan, and at the
same time contrives to let out quite accidentally
to a shopkeeper at Hustings that Hugh is about
to marry a crazy girl for the sake of her money.

Now, therefore, " the murder is out i" the local
newspapers teem with allusions to the subject,
and Susan, who is staying with scale friends in
Norfolk, is at last goaded into writing Hu.,A a
letter advising him to forget her for ever. This
letter brings Hugh back from Oxford much moz"
like a lunatic than his betrothed, and he insists
on his mother accompanying him into Norfolk
to bring Susan to her senses. Their mission is
successfully accomplished, and "My Lady "
returns to Westwood, leaving Ilugh in London
with Susan and Evelyn, who are staying with
Aunt Margaret. Ilere at a party he meets Mr.
Wentworth, brother of the lady whom Sir Philip
had seduced, quarrels with and fights him, and,
receiving a broken arm in the encounter, becomes
so ill that it is considered necessary to send for
Lady Umphraville to town. "My Lady," having
just been visiting sonic sick people in the parish,
carries with her to London the seeds of a malig-
nant fever, which, aggravated by excitement and
want of rest, eventually proves fatal. When the
intelligence that she is on her death-bed is con-
veyed to Sir Philip he refuses to believe it, and
so misses the chance of reconciliation. He marries
again, but lives only a short time, and the conclu-
sion of the tale—all slander being now satisfactorily
cleared up—sees Hugh and Susan master and mis-
tress of Heathcote. There is an under-episode in
the shape of a secret love affair between Evelyn
and the Mr. Wentworth aforesaid, which, we think,
betrays the hand of an inexperiencd writer. It
illustrates nothing, and it leads to nothing, and
seems to have been brought in by the authoress
from a persuasion that the more mystery and
intrigue could be crowded within her four covers
the better. The excision of this episode would
materially improve the story, as well as that of
John Antony Foster, who does nothing whatever
in return for the immortality conferred upon
him.

The best characters in the story are "My
Lady" herself, Aunt Margaret, and Susan, and
the most remarkable points are Sir Philip's
return home and the argument of the aforesaid
lunacy question. "My Lady "is certainly a fine
specimen of an English matron, exhibiting that
union of strength and gentleness, of common
sense and romance, of energy and grace, which
nearly approaches to our ideal of womanhood :

Lady Umpliraville was middle-aged, large, handsome,
with a great deal of dignity, gracious, ample, and mother•
like in her whole bearing; dignity, which made everybody
respectful, yet chilled none. She had never been beautiful,
even in her youth; her face was by no means " correct "
or regular, but it was of that kind of imperfection which
pleases both eye and heart. There was no small amount
of decisioTi—the promptitude and authority of one long
used to rule--in the upper lip, wbioh was just a little
longer than it should have been, and in one confirmed
longitudinal wrinkle between the eyebrows ; and the quiet
brown eyes could flash and could laugh, though the repose
and calm of their ordinary brightness was so pleasant to
look upon. She dressed always very richly and softly,
with a preference for satins and velvets, but scarcely ever
wore any jewels: she was no: the kind of woman to need
sparkles of precious stones about her, and her round youthful
arms bore no manacles of gold, but came softly out of de-
licate lace and cambric : there was not a bracelet or a clasp,
or any kink of pricking thing about her whole apparel—she
was always ufe to take into her tender arms the tenderest
of babies ; and, somehow, this peculiarity of dress added
to the entire feminineness of her appearance. You asso-
ciated children with her by a natural instinct: she was
mother-like in every look, movement, and tone.

Her conduct throughout is in harmony with this
description. And her behaviour on her hus-
band's return, at once sensible and dignified,
without being deficient in tenderness, is perhaps
too near perfection to be real, but is very natural
and beautiful. Aunt Latimer is an old friend.
We wish we could say as much of Susan
Alitford.

We regret that the scene of Sir Philip's return
is too long for quotation. The reader will find
it in the twenty-sixth chapter of the first volume.
There is some novelty in the writer's remarks
upon the risk of hereditary lunacy. The knot,
in this case, is ultimately cut by Susan, who
silences the enemy's guns by the following
dictum—that "to be born is to be born for ever,
" and that to die and go mad are only for a
" time." This conviction she professes to have
arrived at by a night-long study of the Bible on
her knees. The adroitness of the argument
would have done justice to a Queen's Counsel.
Of the innocence of the doctrine we are not so
sure. It might to some minds seem a fair deduc-
tion from it that the highest duty of mankind
was to propagate their species-41 poesuit recte,
ei non, quocunque mock. For even in the case of

illegitimate children, we might say that the sin
of the parents may be forgiven, but that the life
of the child is irrevocable. To sin is to sin once ;
"to be born is. to be born for ever." We only
mean to point out the dangerous consequences
that might flow from the abuse of such an argu-
ment, and to add that it is one not at all unlikely
to be abused.

1. Tales and Adventures. By J. G. F. London:
Saunders and Otley.
2. The Secret of a Life. By M. M. Bell.
London : Routledge.
3. The Life of Charlotte Bronti;. By E. C.
Gaskell. London : Smith and Elder.
4. Agricultural Chemistry. By Alfred Sibson.
London : Routledge.
5. Clare, the Gold-seeker; and Other Poems.
By J. G. Watts. London: Groombridge.
6. A Course of Exercises in German. By Falck
Lebahn, Ph. D. London: Simpkin and
Marshall.
7. Homely Ballads. By Mary Sewell. London :
Smith and Elder.
8. " Old Gingerbread" and the Schoolboys.
London: Smith and Elder.
9. Rhymes for Little Ones. London: Smith
and Elder.

10. Tales from Blackwood. London : Black-
woods.
I. J. G. F. is good enough to promise the public
a more ambitious work, if a favourable reception
be accorded to the present trifles ; but we confess
ourselves at a loss to understand the meaning of
the announcement. If he really expects much
favour to be shown to what appears to be a very
juvenile production, he is likely to be disap-
pointed. But that is no reason why he should
not make a second essay whenever the spirit
shall move him so to do. Nor, on the other
hand, would the most brilliant success justify his
rushing into print in the absence of inspiration.
When he has anything to write worth the trouble
of reading, be will be wrong to withhold it from
the community to which he belongs ; but that
can have nothing whatever to do with the fate
of his " Tales and Adventures." In the mean-
time, we thank him for the information that the
Scottish borderers wore tartans in the time of the
Crusades, that the Turks and Chinese were fami-
liarly known to the Lowland chiefs, that the
catalpa flourished in English gardens, that the
gong did duty as that " tocsin of the soul, the
dinner-bell," and, finally, that hawks were then
sometimes named after Diomed and Gustaf Vasa.
2. The three volume novel, price three half-
guineas, is evidently doomed to extinction in its
old-fashioned form. Messrs. ltoutledge have
struck a fatal blow at the traditional system, and
have inaugurated a new era in the publication of
works of fiction. how far the cause of literature
may thereby be benefited we may not here pause
to inquire; but there can he little doubt that
the masses have reason to rejoice that novels of
fair average merit are now obtainable at prices
that bring them within the reach of all classes.
"The Secret of a Life," for example, which would
formerly have been confined to circulating libra-
ries, may now find its way into every household
possessed of two shillings in ready cash. Nor
will the investment lead to disappointment. This
book is a fair specimen of its class, and a pleasant
means of wiling away a vacant hour. Critically,
it is open to many objections. The characters
arc filled in too minutely, instead of being al-
lowed to portray themselves in word and action.
There is too much dissection of motives and
feelings, as if the writer were more desirous of
exhibiting her own knowledge of the anatomy of
the passions than of merely assisting the reader
to penetrate below the surface. This excessive
and wearisome minuteness is largely character-
istic of lady novelists, or, rather, it is an attribute
of the sex—omitting, of course, the ungallant epi-
thet " wearisome." However, these and other
blemishes notwithstanding, "The Secret of a
Life" is likely to attain a certain degree of suc-
cess, and to be even a favourite with that novel
phase of the public conveniently designated
" railway readers."
3. A fourth edition of Mrs. Gaskell's life of the
much-lamented Mrs. Brontk is a fact that demon-