The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-23 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

Cousin Harry. By Mrs. Grey, author of " The
Gambler's Wife," " The Young Husband," dec.
3 vols. Hurst and Blackett.
In these volumes the authoress has contrived for
the reader a most exciting narrative, replete with
strange events, startling incidents, and striking
personages. It cannot be called a pleasing story,
but it is in every respect a powerful work, from
the brilliancy of its descriptions, the depth of its
interest, and the intensity of its feeling. The plot
of the tale is divined from the commencement.,
where two cousins of the same name part on the
shores of India, the one to return to home and
friends, the other to brave the perils of an arduous
campaign, and endure the vicissitudes of a dan-
gerous cli trate. The varying fates exemplify the
different characters, Henry D'Orville, the
youngest, was the timid, indolent, self-indulgent
youth, who persuaded himself that he must return
because he wished to, and made the pretext of a
trifling indisposition the grounds to furnish a rea-
son for his voyage. Harry, as he is called to d'stin-
tinguish him from his weak namesake, was cast in
a very different mould. He had served beneath.
an Eastern sun double the time, and urgent rea-
sons summoned him away, but he generously gave
up his claim to his cousin, • as both could not be
spared. This was the crisis of their lives, and it
involved the fate of another. It is to be ques-
tioned if " Cousin Harry" was in the right in thus
remaining, since more than himself was concerned
in the expedition. A. friend of his father's had
urged him to return some time previously, but he
had been unwilling to exchange toilsome indepen-
dence for luxurious idleness, purchased through
another's bounty. Mr. Stanley did not like him
the less for this, and hinted in a subsequent
communication, that when the day arrived that
allowed their meeting, his daughter and heiress
might happily be the means of uniting the children
of friends, by a closer bond than that of friendship.
To this also the stern young soldier turned a deaf
ear, but just as the story opens, death had removed
the generous Stanley from the sphere of worldly
plans and hopes. In the epistle which conveyed
, this sad intelligence, the guardians ,of the heiress
delicately communicated that on the bed of death
their friend had reiterated his long-cherished wisb,
and that the attached daughter would be willingto
see if she could comply with his hope before she
irrevocably engaged herself to any of the numer-
ous followers who wait on fortune's favourites.
This at last roused the attention of Harry d'Orville,
and he was to sail when his cousin grew so despond-
ing that he made tie sacrifice before alluded to.
He commissioned him, however, to see this heiress
himself, and transmit to India the description of
her mental and personal endowments. The result
may be imagined, when a selfish man is the judge
of a generous one. Harry d'Orville, by the wound
he received in the field of fame, was compelled to
follow in a short time in the path of his cousin. He
reached him on his wedding eve. The false friend
—by deceit, subterfuge, and misrepresentation—
had installed himself in the coveted place, and the
heiress was his bride. The confusion that ensued
may be supposed, when both the aggrieved parties
discovered they had been duped by their medium.
Henry had so contrived it that they did not meet
till after the ceremony, which should have insepar-
ably united them, had placed betweyn them an
irrevocable barrier. But though thus triumphant
in his subtle plans, the claims of outraged justice,
the voice of injured friendship, could not
thus be silenced, and the description of the
deceiver's state of mind is the best proof that success
is not always gain, as regards mental peace.
"Harry," the baffled, defeated, and, as he felt, in-
jured man, was happier, though he experienced
the natural sensations of a generous character at
being imposed upon by one he had benefitted
and trusted, than be who dealt the blow which de-
prived him of a fair possession and a levely bride.
With a man so noble and high principled ac he who
is the hero of these pages, nothing that bore the
semblance of wrong could occur, although ho
was in the dangerous position of knowing that
Juanita Stanley saw through the whole affair, de-
spised and scorned her husband, and evidently felt
that her father was right in su,pposing that the great
qualities displayed by the son of his friend would
render him a congenial spirit to her own. Henry
D'Orville became infatuated, he could not bear his
cousin's absence, nor endure his presence. He
managed to bring him to the house, and thee, by
inuendoes and insinuations, disclosed the jealous
passions of his bewildered brain. Juanita was the
first to discover them, and the idea of his injustice,
after his guilt, roused such a storm in the breast of
the maiden, in whose spirit butned the fire of her
Sa,,uish mother, that for a time the weak man
quailed. It is to be said that Juanita herself was
to blame, for she had acted for herself, and she was
free to wait till experience bad shown whether the
Indian warrior's description was correct. It was
mortified vanity as much as injured dignity,
which she miscalled it, that induced her to accept
Henry, whom she forced herself to like at first,
when she believed him the real suitor, although
she confessed to her aunt that he had not oue qua-
lification which she desired in a husband, and was
not the manly ideal of her father's vision, With
mixed feelings she at last resolved to show her
tardy knight what ske could do without
him, and rushed to the altar a sacrifice
to wrong ideas. This expedient, always
dangerous, became doubly so to a being like
Juanita, who possessed an ill-disciplined mind)
with violent passions. She had the excuse of hay-
ine been deceived to allow her to despise her hus-
band to begin with, and on this dangerous Slruu'