The Sun.
London, England, 1861-08-27 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Alone in the World. A Novel. By Mrs. Gordon
Smythies, Author of " Cousin Geoffrey," " Mar-
ried for Love," &c. Three vols. Hurst and
Blackett.

This work is by one who has long been known to
the public as a writer of striking fictions. These
volumes contain much to attract the reader with
their constant variety and their eventful incidents.
Many of the characters are drawn with considerable
skill. The mystery is kept up in a very successful
manner till near the close of the narrative, and the
peculiar circumstances of the case invest the story
with some of the attributes that appertain to the
old romances more than to the novels of the pre-
sent day. The heroine is a very gentle young crea-
ture, who underwent the most cruel sufferings, and
who throughout conducted herself with judgment
and foresight worthy of one far advanced in age.
The earliest years of her life were passed in the
country under the care of some kind friends, who
had adopted her. For various reasons she was
stolen, and would have undergone a dark destiny
had she not escaped and found anew some shelter-
ing roof. From this again she was taken, but con-
trived to escape in a surprising manner. She was
in an inner room, supposed to be asleep, while she
heard the ruffians planning to destroy her as the
dead tell no tales. She was gazing at the set of
desperadoes, and giving herself up for lost, when a
saving impulse seized her, and led her from certain
destruction to safety and security :

" A Heaven-suggested thought flashed across her mind.
She crept to the window. The tide was on the flow, and
it bathed the dark, slimy, discoloured walls of the crazy
old house.

" A boat which was stranded when they arrived there,
and which, in spite of her terror and anguish, Our Mary
had noticed, as it lay like a prisoner fastened to a stake—
(one always does novice the smallest details with the eye,
when the mind is engrossed by horror)—on the water, now
it was dancing up and down, the rope no longer visible,
and itself wafted close under the window of her room.

" Gently Our Mary opened the broken window. How
she trembled as it creaked and groaned ! but the sound,
so distinct to her attentive and anxious ear, was quite lost
to the boozers in their noisy revels. Our Mary clomb the
window• sill, stretched her hand to one of the rugged
wooden props of the old crazy house—reached it I Light
and agile,, she turned round her pale face to the room, ven-
tured one little foot on to the projection in the buttress,
drew herself out cautiously, felt for another projection with
the other foot, completely cleared the window, and at the
next attempt to find a footing, partly slipped, partly fell,
down the slippery buttress, and into the very boat which
came, as if wafted by some good, guardian angel, to the
foot of the buttress at that very moment.
" Our Mary was not unused to a boat; she had often
been her Daddy Mayflower's companion in his little ex-
cursions to the island, in the lake•like pond at Woodhurst.
" He made her a little oar, with which she delighted to
think that she rowed daddy to the island, when the wind
wafted him there. He had often tried to teach her to
steer, and to help with her little rosy hands to loosen the
knot of the rope, or to bale out the water,
" And now Our Mary proved that all knowledge is use-
ful sooner or later ; for she knew how to release the boat,
and where to sit, not caring to what spot she was wafted,
so that it was far, far away from those terrible ruffians
whom she had overheard and seen plotting her murder.
" ' Father 1' she said, raising her eyes to Heaven, lam
thy child, for thou art the father of the orphan. Oh, when
wilt thou take me home ? I am alone in this world ; take
me, father.'

It was a beautiful sight, that little fair, golden-haired
girl, not ten years old, with the bright moon shining full
upon her, and she, her large eyes raised to Heaven in
silent prayer and thankfulness, drifting up the stream, on
which, luckily, owing to the hour (two in the morning),
no steamers, no craft, were plying, no wherries or skiffs
rowing.
" She seemed to have the bright, silvery track all to her-
self, and to know no fear, but to be strong in a deep and
happy conviction that He who was with Daniel in the
lion's den, and with Shadrach, Meshech, and Abednego in
the fiery furnace—He who has promised never to forsake
those who believe in him, and who pray to him—Ho who
had put into Charles Linden's little heart to take her to
Mrs. Toddles', and who had now enabled her to escape
what seemed inevitable death—would not let her perish on
that shining river, but would command the tide, the winds,
and waves to bear her to a harbour of refuge, and the silver
lamp of night to light her on her watery way 1"

The various plots and counterplots that took place
among the conspirators are very aptly described,
and those who wish for an exciting story cannot do
better than peruse its pages. Mina led a most
wretched life, but it was in a great measure her
our fault, as she had so early in life began a course
of deception. She had far better have left home
at once, and openly proclaimed her marriage with
Egerton than have made such elaborate plans of
deceit that with all their guilt had not even a rea-
sonable motive to explain what could not be ex-
cused. This fatal secret hung over her for many
long years, and spoiled what should have been her
brightest time. She carried about with her the
consciousness that she had deceived every one, and
thus more might be supposed against her than she
had actually committed. It was in consequence of
this secret marriage that all the misunderstandings
arose which led to her separation from her second
husband, the Earl of Beaudesert. Had she at least
made up her mind to tell him of her marriage with
Egerton and his untimely death in America,
whither he had gone soon afterwards, her
life would have been very different. The last
passages of the tale concerning the trial are most
exciting, and the denouement altogether is an in-
stance of great dexterity on the part of the author.
The sudden appearance of the long lost Earl of
Beaudesert was in itself an incident of great mo-
ment. As often occurs, the villains were caught
in their own toils, for Gaspar Mountjoy was con-
victed by the evidence of some of his own gang.
There was a touch of nature in Moonlight Meg
that went far to redeem her bad qualities. She
saw in the persecuted Mary, the orphan wanderer
on the cruel highways of life a resemblance to her
own child, dead long ago. This fancy made her
save the life that had been doomed by the others,
and long years afterwards brought her foaward as
a witness of great importance when Mary stood
at the bar arraigned for a charge of murder.
Captain Jink's evidence was very apropos. He
did not prove too much. He tried to screen hig
quondam friend as well as he could, and therefore
what he did disclose was doubly effective. The
climax was 'when he averred the trial rested on
false grounds, for the murdered child, on whose
pretext it was convened, yet lived, and declared
that he had hoped to have produced him in court
as a most important witness for the defence. The,
boy did appear, however, with his father, and thus
happily terminated two dilemmas of the narrative.
Gaspar destroys himself when his crimes are de-
tected, and he is then discovered to have been
the real murderer of others as well as the intended
destroyer of Mary and the boy. For variety in
events and vividness in relation this novel need
not fear to compete with many of its contempo-
raries, and the many lovers of the marvellous and
admirers of the exciting should possess themselves
of this tale, which abounds in all kinds of wonders.
There are some secondary individuals met with
who are ably delineated—Mrs. Bussel in particular.
'the scene in which she is discovered hiding in a
shower-bath is admirably related. In her flurry
to get out the foolish woman pulled the wrong
string, and instead of untying the curtains she
pulled the water down on her, and besides the
shock, she annihilated her best dress of pink
moire, and to secure the silence of the servants
had to offer a douceur of five pounds. She had
enough of eaves-dropping to last her for some time.
This new work by the author of the well-known
" Cousin Geoffrey," bids fair to be as successful as
the other novels of its talented author, and many
may turn from graver studies to dwell on the
sorrows of her who was so early cast on the
charity of others, and truly was left " Alone in
the World."