The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-07-21

while has also gone the way of all flesh, and the
hero within the year marrles his third wife, "the
most lovable girl in the world"
The character of the Earl is an equally
absurd mixture OF opposites. He is gooi-hearted
and weak praying continually,a ,as we are told, and
has determination to do his duty, yet Is con-
tinually caught wishing hImself dead. Again
and again docs the pleasant anticipation break
from his lips. His second wife is the best drawn
parsonage in the book, but she seems TO us to be
rather peculiar She hates Val, yet marries him
for money-that we can understand she then
loves him passionately, and then commences to
hate him again without any cause. Her feelings
are like the tide, continually ebbing and flowing,
and while we do not pretend to understand the
female heart, vet we do think the Lady Maude is
Unnatural.
There is but one other character worthy of
note, and that is the Dowager Countess of Kir-
ton. We would cordially advise Mrs. Wood to
depict the manners of washerwomen, and leave
ladies alone. We enever heard of such character
among the hsh.mongers of Bllingsgate, much
less in the polite circle of any civilized nation.
We will describe her best by giving an account
of her behavior at the time of the first Earl's
death:-
rather turbulently. She talked and shr1eked
and danced round in her pink satin, in the
middle OF the hall, exactly as it she had been
wild Indian. 1t was so intensely ludlcroua thai
the hal gazed in silence.
Here 10 day, and gone to-morrowm she
sobbed. "Oh-o-oh !"
"Nay,n cried young Carteret; "here today,
and me ROl1. Poor fellow il Is awful"
"&nd you have done it p she cried, turning
her grief upon the astonished boy, and begin
ming to dance round him. You! What busi-
ness had you to allure him off again in that
miserable boat, once he had gone home I"
Don't tranpe me down, please !" he indig-
nantly returned; Il am as cut up as you can be.
Hedges, hadn't you better get Lady KirCon's
maid here? | think she's going mad.n
'And now the house is without master" she
bemoaned, returning to her own gres and
troubles, and / have all the arrangements
thrown upon myself"
''The house is not without MASTER said
young Carteret who seemed inclined to have
the last word. ''It one master has gone from
it, poor fellow! there's another to replace him;
and he is at your elbow now.n
he at her elbow was Val Elster. Lady Kirton
gathered in the sense Of the words, and gave a
cry-a real, prolonged cry OF absolute dlsmay.
He can't be Its master.r
'I should say he IS. ma'am. At any rate, he is
the Earl of Hartleton."
She looked from one to the other in helpless
doubt. 1t was contingency that had never so
much as once occurred to her. Had she wanted
confirmation the next moment brought il to her
from the lips of the butler.
Hedges" called out Perclval, sternly, in his
embarrassment and grief, "open 10 the dining
room door. We must get the hall clear"
''Ihe door is open, my lord"
. "Yah-ah-ahp shrieked the Countess
Dowager; che, Lord Hartledon Why, | was
gazing to recommend his brother to slip him OF
to Canada fer lie."
-. 1t was altogether an uuseemly scene at such
time. But nearly everything that the Countess
bowager OF Krton did was unseemly.
Her tadyship was SO continually going through
with this war.dance, that we think that Mrs.
Wood must have just discovered the word, and
sought to make 1t familiar to her readers. The
whole character is much out OF place, and had
better have been omitted, else put in the place
of the housekeeper.
But with all its faults and absurdities, the book
is well worth perusal. 1t is as absorbing as any
book which has fallen under our notice Tor
months, and will make most entertaining sum-
reading. For interest, it is the best OF all of
Mrs. Woods works, and will, we anticipate, have
a vast circle of admirers. While most ridiculous,
it is most absorbing. 7. B. Peterson & Brothers
have published it from advance sheets.