The Cecil Whig., 1878-03-09
For Til. Cecil Viii!
MISS PHELPS LAST NOVEL.
THOMAS J. SAMPLE.
THE STORY OF AVIS.

{ ndG ABOUT decided tnat Qld not care
| to read the story of Avis, after all that
had read about it, but when a friend kindly
sent me copy. set myself down to its
careful perusal. My friend who sent the
! volume accompanied it with a note, in
which he said that he doubted not "that I
would be delighted with the romance
| must confess that | have perused othel
books with far more enjoyment than | de-
rived from the pages of Avis" At first,
it is rather d flicult to make out exactly
what point the authoress has in view il
this long story.
1t opens with the gi,lhood of the heroine
She dislikes hoIsework and has to be called
to breakfast. If Mss Phelps had really
wanted to get mp something original in the
way of a heroine, she should have depicted
at the peep of day, MIXED the cows, FED
the chickens, and sashed things around
generally. This would have been quite a
relief from the monotony of women who
coming alaimingly common, both in books
and out of them.
But the most singular thing about this
Avis is that she never talks of dress or
beaux. All that her mind runs upon is
books, painting, music, &c. Now it strikes
me that this would be tedious sort OF
young woman to encounter in real life
The conqneriug hero comes at last, how.
ever, in the person of Philip Ostrander.
and he has desperate time of it to stop
her from thinking about her painting and
60 to thinking about his handsome face
and figure. OF course he succeeds in time.
promising her that domestic duties never
shall interfere with her aspirations, but no
sooner are they married than, man like, be
develops into the selfish tyrant that is the
natural character of welded man-accord
ing to Susan Anthony. The story afte,
this is an enlai cement of the old fashioned
ballad wherein are depicted the woes OF
"a goose that would marry a cror. He
would build his nest up high, while she
built hers down iotc." 1t seems that mind.
like air and water, seeks its equilibrium
and never rests until it is found. This
world is, unfortunately for women of genius
got up on the variety show plan, "yon
pays your money and you takes your
choice" Those who are welded to art
have no business getting themselves welded
to anything else, for the patient masculine
saint, who would sit calmly down amid
general disorder, jog the cradle, and turn
the beefsteak while his wife was off paint
ing sudden inspiration is dead some time
ago, and left no descendants behind him.
Ostrander is better man than Miss
Phelps would have us think. When, in
the first ardor of his passion, be made those
rash vows to Avis. be simply did not know
himself. nor the state he was entering into.
He had never been married before, you see,
and did not know what trial a wife with
inspirations would become.
Surely he had faults enough to estrange
a high souled woman like Avis, without
making him commit the coarse, common
woman whose inferior intellect matched
his own. This is, to our mind, weak act
in the story as well as in the man. Yet
"Avs" is not devoid, as a whole, of great
power and delicate beauty. When she
finds that the rich, red flower of love, which
she has gathered to her bosom, is turning
into a poor, common weed, she does not
fling it from her in disgust, but seeks
earnestly, and with beautiful self abnega
tion, to hide it in the folds of the mantle
of charity. To the last she sits calm and
strong in the ruined temple of her soul,
aud tries to conceal from the world the
shattered idol at her feet 1t is this part
of the story which wins our deepest sym
pathy. When Philip dies it is great re,
lief, like the touch which dspels the night
mare. Cousin SUE.