The Sun.
London, England, 1855-04-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 26. 185

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LITERATURE.

RLILWAY!•

Le:t9lng

Otostm ence!.
yesterlay.

.31.1w,en
this day.

The Newcomes. No. XIX. By W. M. Thackeray.
It could scarcely have been anticipated that
-within the compass of a single number the curiosity
of the readers of Mr. Thackeray would be satisfied
in regard to the three most bewildering doubts ex-
cited in their imaginations by the domestic plots
and counterplots related by our author in this his
charming home-story of "The Newcomes." Yet so
it has come to pass—the triple mystery being solved
within the chapters comprised in the present in-
stalment. Whether Ethel would marry Princekin?
Whether Clara would elope with Jack Belsize,
otherwise Lord Highgate ? Whether Rosy would
cajole Clive with her wicked, little, artful,
simple, designing witcheries ? Already Mr.
Thackeray has answered each of these questions
—beneficently allaying thereby the more poig-
nant pangs of inquisitiveness. The magnificent
Fergus Angus Malcolm Mungo Roy, Marquis of
Farintosh, is—dismissed : literally dismissed by
Miss Ethel Newcome. His more quizzical ac-
quaintance would call it, in a whisper—flow, aside
like a gala bouquet, after being coquetted with by a
petulant beauty for a stray hour or two as an amus-
ing ornament. His damned good-natured friends
would blurt out curtly, bluntly, flatly jilted.
However this might be suraiised, Princekin actually
is dismissed, though with a sort of pathetic apology
and respectful obeisance. The young belle owns to
having been lured on by the glitter of the coronet.
She saves herself from the possibility of any future
calamity in its acceptance by giving a half-regretful
conge to her lordly betrothed. The manner in which
this incident is related is in every way inimitable.
Whether it be regarded in reference to the display
I of Ethel's compunction and self-reproach at the
outset—merged, long before the close, into womanly
pride and self-gratulation ; or whether it be con-
sidered, on the other hand, in reference to the
amazement first of all awakened in the mind of the
Marquis of Farintosh, irritated before many words
have been passed between the wooers into upright
wrath and downright indignation—" It's a shame
—it's a shame," the young lord cries, with tears of
rage and anguish—as they bring to an end their
stormy interview. The truth is, Ethel has been
alarmed into this sudden rupture of the betrothal,
by the disastrous termination of just such
another incongruous union—the one between
her delightful brother Barnes and the un-
fortunate Lady Clara Pulleyn. As before
intimated, Lord Highgate has rescued the latter
from her miserable home at Newcome, by luring
her to an adulterous elopement. Thereupon fol-
lows the scandalous sequel of a trial for crint. con.,
resulting in a verdict for the plaintiff—damages
so-and-so, as a salve of gold for the wounded spirit,
or, as we may call it, a plaster of bank notes for
the bruised body of Sir Barnes Newcome, plucked
out of his saddle by the strong hand of poor sinning
Jack, and flung screaming on the pavement of his
patrimonial borough, in the presence of honest
Taplow and other members of its astonished
population. Then, fast upon the heels of the great
case, Newcome v. Lord Highgate, comes the costly
luxury of a divorce and the final match (too late
for the happiness of either) of poor Clara and poor
Jack, now Lord and Lady Highgate. Affrighted
by the calamity which has descended upon her
family like a thunderbolt, Ethel gracefully, if not
graciously, retreats from the consequence of her
ill-considered betrothal with Princekin. It yet
remains to be seen whether it might not possibly
have been better for the young paragon of the gay
world had she borne in mind the sagacious hint
lying perdu, as it were, in the wise old adage, which
says—

NEWMARKET RACES

(THIS DAY.)

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPEI.)

-" It's well to be honest and true ;
It's well to be off with the old love before you are on
with the new !”