The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-21 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Lords and Ladies. By the Author of " Margaret
and her Bridesmaids." 3 Tols. Hurst and
Blackett.
The charming authoress of " Margaret and her
Bridesmaids" has selected for the theme of her new
story an incident as improbable, not to say impos-
sible, as can well be imagined, but the clever man-
ner in which she has concocted her little plot, and
the truly pleasant style in which she has detailed
it to us, go far towards inducing us to overlook the
slight fundamental error above alluded to Among
our lady novelists there is perhaps no one who for
playful vivacity of style and lively, graceful gossip,
excells the favorite authoress of " Margaret and
her Bridesmaids," and " the Queen of the County,"
and some other pleasant works. " Lords and
Ladies" will, at all events, interest the fairer and
better half of novel readers. It is just the book
for a companion in the busy idleness of the sea-
beach or the country-side. The interest is not so
exciting but that it may be laid aside upon occa-
sion, but whenever taken up and wherever opened,
the reader will find pleasant matter to wile away
an agreeable hour. Neither will the time so spent
be wasted time, for the gentle, homely moral incul-
cated by the little drama enacted by these wilful
lords and ladies is one well worthy of general
application. The motto on the title-page, •from
Tennyson—

"Musing on the little lives of men,
And how they mar this little by their feuds"—
is well enough, but almost too serious for the
theme, as the altercations between the heroes and
heroines of the tale, although startling enough in
their consequences, hardly amount to " feuds."
More appropriate would have been those charming
lines of Moore's, beginning
" Oh, ye who have the charge of Love,
Keep him in rosy bondage bound."
The truth contained in that well-known passage,
which it is unnecessary to quote at length, is the
keynote of this amusing serio-comic history of the
discussions and divisions of these lords and ladies :
" A something light as air, a look,
A word unkind or wrongly taken,
Ob, Love, that tempests never shook,
A breath, a touch like this hath shaken."
The cause of the famous " challenge " given
and received in this veracious history arises,
as the first chapter tells us, " like a cloud of
smoke." Rather, it should be said, it occurs
because the cloud of smoke does not rise. Mrs.
Joscelyn, at a dinner party at her newly-decorated
mansion, objects to any smoking in the dining-
room after dinner ! The consequences .of this ob-
jection, and the gentleman's objection to that objec-
tion, are altogether so serious and amazing that we
must refer our readers for a full account to the
pages of the history itself ! Mrs. Joscelyn, " the
head and front" of this offending, is herself so all-
perfect and fascinating that it is a marvel how any
request of hers can be so ill received. But the
Squire, good man as he is, is suffering at the moment
under a sudden irritation of the nerve Opiniatum,
which nerve, our authoress tells us, although little
mentioned by anatomists, "runs from the brain to
the feet—in some subjects it overpowers and wholly
subjugates every other nerve in the body; the
slightest touch starts it into instant life, and during
the time it quivers and lives, the reasoning faculties,
the moral powers, the higher virtues succumb before
it !" Such are the dread effects of any interference
with this deadly nerve, as Mrs. Joscelyn has reason
to know. The Squire, when this troublesome nerve
is at rest, is a delightful companion. Even on the
desert island, where he and his companions betake
themselves during the freak, he suprises his brother
travellers by dressing for dinner, even although no
ladies (of course) are present. When reminded by
his friends that such social observances are now
unnecessary, he rejoins, " I have a certain respect
for a fellow called Jack Joscelyn, and I always pay
him the compliment of a clean shirt, hands, and
face, even when he and I dine alone !" The sequel
of the quarrel is very ingeniously arranged, but we
should be loth, by a word, to reveal the mystery
of the result. Suffice it to say, that "all is well that
ends well;" the " Lords " and the " Ladies " derive
profit from their experiences, which are likely to
afford considerable amusement to their readers.