The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-07

were not satisfied with the match from the first.
Miss RAcHEi-He must have been a noble fellow
TO have allowed his mother and sisters to egg him
on against his vile.
FELicIA-As might be supposed the poor young
wMe's life was anything but happy. The climax
oil her unbappiness was reached when she dis
covered that she was not her husbands 1rst love,
nor his last, II her fears were well founded. 1t
seems that he had been engaged TO charming
cousin. who was thrown from horse as they
were about to be married and met with an acct
dent winch crippled her for life. He was good
enough to want 10 marry her. Notwithstanding
her misfortune, but she would not listen to the
proposal. She was really nne character, one OF
the best In the book. Philip always had very
tender regard for his lost love- but seeing how the
case STOOD he Tell In love with Ethel, being the
most sens BILE thing to DO.
Miss RAcHEL-Don't say "fell In lover That Is
! misapplicaton of the term. Ethel's beauty and
sweetness OF disposition pleased him just as Q
fine horse or swift sailing yacht would. Such
man never loves but one person, and that IL him.
SELF
FRLICIA-Ethe brOoded over her discovery untfl
she had made pretty big sized mountain out OF
very small mole hill There was nothing
beyond pleasant friendship between her nus
band and his cousin; but then Ethel was young
ana inexperienced. Philip chaled under her
groundless jeaiousies, and the two were about as
miserable as and wife need wish to be.
Finally they separated, neither knowing exactly
what for. and Philip went out to the Crimea The
crippled cousin and Ethel's sister Margaret, a pat
tern elder sister, at last brought the unruy
couple together, and the story ends happily, as all
good stories should.
Miss RACoEL-But thought you said that this
was not good story.
FEILCIA-Neitner is 1t in a literary point OF view
but morally 1t Is unexceptionable. You can
readily see from what l have told you that the
plot Is Old and hackneyed and not very good
either. And the story is spread out beyond the
readers patience. II half OF the conversations
were taken out it would be very pretty little
story; not par tcularly merltorious and at all
! mcretriciOus.
'vHE MYsTERY.n
"Just think" SAID MISS Rachel, with q sigh OF
WEAKNESS, "oi having written thirty books in
! the same strain East Lynne l cannot
imagine any womans brain holding 80 many plots
/ and counterplOts."
FELIcIA-No one can accuse Mrs. Henry Wood
OF tameness. l never read such hair-raising,
blood-curdling stories as hers. Here is her last
EFFORT, "The Mystery" in the publication Of which
the Messrs. Peterson are ahead OF their English
rivals 1t has all the pecuarities OF the preced-
ing thirty odd volumes, and Is Just as exciting
either.
Miss RACHEL always imagine Mrs. Wood as
+, the Lucille western OF literature. l may have
gotten the idea from Miss Westerns mpersona-
ton IN the play OF East Lynne"
| FELICIA-Very likely you did. for none could ever
see her In that part without always associatin
her with 1t. 1.-THE Mystery' is as strange and
mysterious as its name would imply There Is
murder, death and stolen will in the very nrst
pages, and there is no letting up in the
excitement. Mrs. Wood has no mercy
on her readers nerves. She stretches
them to the utmost ,limit. Upon my
word, l was almost GREATNESS while
reading the ghost scenes. Every time the "fetch"
appeared felt pricKling sensation around the
roots of my hair, and II it had not been for the
hairpins II would certainly have risen straight up.
The mystery about the Chandos mansion Is really
well kept up. Such banging of DOORS unearthly
shrieKing, ghost walking time never care to eX-
! perience in real life.
Miss RAcuEL-Anne Hereford was brave girl
even to nirt with member OF that mysterious
family. should not have been able 10 have stayed
in the house alter once seeing the ghost
FEILslA-That shrieking IN the night reminded
me Of the time Betsy, the cook, went crazy and
set up such bowling In the dead hour OF the
night. 1t makes me tremble now to think OF that
time.
| Miss RAcHEI-What Q plotting villain that Ed.
win Barley was. / thought, OF course, that he
| was gong to turn out to be the murderer OF
Philip King. He was none TOO good to have COM
mitted such crime. Just give him pr0vOcatiOn
and pistols and see what would follow.
FELICIA-Mrs. Wood makes the English board &.
ing schools suffer by comparison with the French.
/ imagine both OF those schools were drawn from
the lie. Emily Chandos Is pretty good type Of
a certain kind OF boarding school girl. Feared by
the teachers, enved and admired by tae girls. DOM
ineering, wild, generous, neither very smart or
very dull, carrying her own more by swagger and
money than by any personal merit. Make her a
| poor girl and she would be utterly Insignificant.
Poor Alfred de Mellssie, she led him hard lie.
Such girls do not make very good wives. was
told to marry either OF the two girls should have
chosen Anne Hereford, though neither were eX-
actly to my taste.
Miss RACHEL-No. cannot say that any Of Mrs,
Woods characters are particularly domest. c.
They have their good points, but wifey qualifica-
tons are not among the number. one can truly
say that there is not dull page In this book.
The author does not waste words. She has a
tale to tell. and she tells 1t.
FELICIA-Hers Is not one OF the plain. unvar.
nished sort either. She dips her pen in blood, and
punges iearlessy into the melodramatic. doubt
If there ID boarding school in the land whose pu-
pills have not dogeared copies Of Mrs. Woods nov
els smuggled into their DESKS I remember how
that irrepressble Cooper girl, who roomed near
US, used to keep novel Of Mrs. WOODS or Mrs.
Southworths between the covers OF Bible.
When the teachers would come around looking for
forbidden literature they would smile with salts.
faction to see little Cooper's Bible occupying such
conspicuous place among her school books.
Alasi how one enjoyed the stolen fruitl would
give good deal to have novel appear as real TO
me as 1t used to in those days. / couldn't sleep a
wink when reading "The Missing Bride"
MISS RACHEL (rather scornfully)-T cannot see
but that you enjoy novel reading as much nova
days as you did then.
BOOKS RECEIVED.