The Express.
London, England, 1858-02-06 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The !finely Retreat : or, a Year is Beregal before
the Matiaies. By Two Sums. In two vols.
London : Richard Bentley.
When a young lady likes to make herself
agrec-
able it is by no means difilcult for her to succeed. If
she talks we are entertained, if she dances we are
charmed, if she sings we breathe

- diviner air
In some loft heaven of joy beyond the raw of are.

That Eastern beauty who, to save herself from the
bowstring, told her lord and master a fresh romance
every night, had not a very hard ink after all. Let
a woman but be simple and natural, and true—or
at any rate let her have the art to appear such—and
she wields • fascination to which the strongest of
the opposite sex must quietly submit. This truth
is exemplified in the book whose title we have
placed above. Two sisters go out to India—take •
journey often taken—tell ua nothing new—meet
with no striking adventures—present no flattering
portrait of Indian society, but one quite the reverse I
and yet, owing to the thoroughly unaffected account
they have published, we must candidly confess that
"The Timely Retreat" is one of the pleasantest
books of travels we have read for some time.
Tacit= asks—the reader of the " Germania" will
remember the passage—" Qua purr,: prefer periese-
luna Aorridi et synoti maria Raid out Afrseel out
ItatiJ relieto Germanism peteret r Our Two
Sisters, anticipating u question of similar purport,
very candidly enlighten us OA to the object of their
journey. London being empty, and Paris—hear it,
indignant France, and pardon the audacity of two
British maidens—" growing dull," it occurred to
Nora and Maude " that we two might ran out alone
overland to India ; take a peep at Keith (be it re-
membered Keith is their brother) and the country,
and be back in no time." No sooner was the b
liant idea conceived than it was realised. It was in
November that the Indian scheme was contem-
plated. " Before February arrived we found our-
selves the fortunate possessors of fifty-three dresses
each '!!" After this we are not surprised that the
company's charge for extra luggage was 121. Gaily
our heroines started from Southampton on board the
Ava, with a sketch-book and a journal as big as a
ledger. At Malta they went on shore early to
practice with their pistols ! "We acquitted our-
selves,
we were told, with great credit." Elated
with this praise Mande boldly affirms of the I
vexes, woman to be the better shot. "I always,"
she writes, "see that ladies when they do shoot
seem to find it easier than gentlemen, as from not
drinking wine or smoking they have • steadier
hand and a more correct eye." At Valetta they go
out on a watering expedition, dressed in brown hats,
dark skirts, and loose scarlet flannel jackets. Maude
thinks her dress very becoming, but as she pares
the saloon she hears a gentleman exclaim " I can't
stand this—let me away ; let me away before I get
burned up." Yet our heroines are very models of pro-
priety. They stop away from a grand concert at Ya-
letta,to which their cousins pressed them to go, "feel-
ing dubious as to whether the age and standing of
these youths entitled them to act as chaperones."
At Cairo they joined an expedition to see the
pyramids and the Sphynx. " Fortunately for
Nom and I, we had had some little practice in sitting
sideways on a gentleman's saddle." At Suez they
End the advantage of travelling without a gentle-
man. Every. gentleman, writes Mande, feel
bound to assist ladies. " whereas if you have a
gentleman with you people look on grumpy and never
think of helping you, however much you may
require it, because that would be aiding him, which
they do not care to do," and yet with this care, se
they voyaged down the Red Sea, they encounter
terrible calamities. Nora mimes " a complete set
of hair cushions and rollers, together with two love)
plaits of hair, which she h:.l laid in to
against the possible ravages of fever on her tresses."
Then the wonderful journal was not to be found.
" No wonder I flew on deck in despair, to commu-
nicate my loss to Non, and would not be consoled
by the offer of some gentlemen to recover the book
at any price from the thieviv Arabs, on condition
that they might read it first. Then there were the
cockroaches, of enormous size, and in • rampant
state of hunger and liveliness. At Ceylon the
ladies have a pic-nic, and nearly lose the steamer in
consequence. At Madras they refuse to go ashore
because the rue was so still! At Calcutta they are
hospitably entertained and make preparations for
their journey to Meerut, a distance of nine hundred
miles, which they do under the gaardianship of an
ayah strongly recommended fur her English—
that 'English being limited exclusively to the phrase,
"My darling child." They are not sorry to leave
Calcutta, where conversation is chiefly " civil or
military shop," and at no place do they seem to have
met with many congenial spirits or much to
have enjoyed themselves. The first few
days, when they had joined Keith at
Meerut, " were unparalleled for dullness and
gloom." But in time they found society, and had
dinner parties and balls. At the first of these fes-
tivals the two sisters created quite a sensation by
wearing on their white shoes cherry-coloured bows.
This was the beginning of a long controversy.. We
need not add the ladies persisted in wearing them ,
" both because we liked them, and also had the au-
thority of our Paris shoemaker for doing so." Here
unfortunately Nora falls ill, and this necessitated a
journey to the hills, where they have a fancy ball
and the areal scandal, as naturally as if the scene had
been not Muasoorie but Mayfair. They exchange
this for • shooting excursion in the interior of the
Himalayas. Even here we have the femi-
nine regard for appearances. "So the muslin
ends of the pugheree which hung down
the back were ornamented with little red stripes,
which Keith declared would scare away all the
game." This wild life seems to have suited the
sisters, though " One day, when we were singing
as usual, we were startled by Keith's voice behind
us, exclaiming, 'No wonder the Fame is so scarce.
if that howling is going to continue, you must let
me get an in front'—an impertinent remark which of
course only made us redouble our vocal efforts."
But at length the time came for the ladies to return.
Keith accompanied them as far as Delhi. " One or
two days in Calcutta were spent in a whirl of visiting
and shopping," and in six weeks they were at home
—and lodic, " but as a vision of the past, to be dis-
carded as • nightmare,always excepting the glorious
Himalayas." Well may they call their retreat a
timely one. Within a month of their return home
the mutiny spread far and wide, " and wrapped the
peaceful scenes of our late wanderings in a sheet of
flame."

Chormiont. A Tale of the Groat Athenian Revo-
lution. By EDRAID A. Lurnsm, M.A. In 2
vole. London: Bradbury and Evans.
This is a bold attempt, and, to a certain extent, a
successful one. If it be true, as Sir Lytton Bulwer
remarks, that with the dewiest age we have no
household and familiar associations—Abet to oar
northern imagination the creed of that departed re-
ligion—the customs of that past civilisation—pre-
sent little that is sacred or attractive ; such tale, ss
" Charmione" can never hope to win a very wide-
spread popularity. Mr. Leathern has been happy in
the choice of his subjects ; for assuredly the most
sallied page in Athenian history is that which fol-
lowed the battle of Arginuare, where, for neglecting
to rewne the eurrivors, or to collect the bodies of the
dead for burial—at the bidding of the fierce demo-
cracy which then ruled in Athens—the victorious
generals were compelled, unjustly, as most histo-
rians think, and Mr. Leathern agrees with them, to
drink the fatal hemlock. One of these was Peri-
cles, the son ef the celebrated statesman of that
name, and of the equally celebrated Aspasia. The
story, which opens with the death of his father,
turns upon his love for Cbarmione, and terminates
with his untimely execution. Mr. lAmtham's ClAO-
deal lore is more copious than his knowledge of that
mystery of mysteries—woman. One may have
studied the digamma, mastered Bancrit, discovered
perpetual motion, or squared the circle, and yet he
shall be but a very child to any woman of wit who
bas had her &cultic* sharpened by a season or two
in town. Charmione had been almost brought
up with Pericles ; he had long been a suitor of hers;
she had rejected him when flushed with honours
and clewed a general by universal suffrage ; she
had listened to his passionate pleading with indif-
ference ; and yet we are asked to believe that this
indiffrennee suddenly is turned into the moot