New-York tribune., 1878-02-02
GAIL HAMILTON ONCE MORE.
THE STORY OF AvIS-A REVIEW IN ". PARTS
PART l.

often been invited to read so lofty story ana nti-
happily Miss Phelps has availed herself OF all the
possibilities lying in vicious style to prevent the
reading this. 1t is pity to see so ad-
pllrabe and so rare n study OF human LIE overaid
with affcctatoEs and cXaggeraiiOns. The story ne
gns with jerk, and works its way along beneath
tanglo of metaphor, and arage of generalization
and frenzy Of al lys'j and craze OF intenslhca-
tion. The inCohoTcnt phrases the disoidcred hair'
the fantastic garlando OF Ophea, are at once gro
tesque and painful. and the wonder grows TO lind
beneath them al Opheha walking stately and sane
as beseems princess Of the royal blood.
Sometimes indeed. the falseness Of the style
seems to have struck into the thought beneath Ihe
excessive arifce Of language extends to the cnal-
- acter over which the words wrostle so strenuousY
and the simplest girls do nothing simply On
the very first page, Coy, who left ideas to AVIS
cannot sit wondering. without the uncanny Attle
iunuendo " Ii was becoming 30 Coy to wonder Bar
bara Allen turned Tie exact intellectual pose oi her
head there was hut one intellectual pose 90 BAiUa
ra's head toward Philip Ostrander. She sat on tle
cricket at Ostrander's feet, and had 50 graceful
pose there that she was quite content with Os'fah-
der'yadmiung looks and would not run the FISK ol os
ing the effect by speaking Avis sat the cricket at
her fathers feet and received equal admiration from
the same gentleman. What is the good of educating
girls if heir education only transfers their co4uet-
res from the ballroom TO the reading-cubY A girl
might as well be making eyes at man in waltz
as Oh q cricket al his feet. Simple Coy expresses
her dislike of the theological reader By hoping that
some Of the grls viii refuse him before the WINTER
is over-which Is III better taste than IL butter
fy of society had said it of young man OF fashion,
Miss Phelps, speaking of Avis and Philip. says
There is certain shade of expression peculiar TO
mans face, which every woman knows, but few
understand. Ii falls as far short of the flush OF
overmaSterIng feeling on the hand as II does OF
sefpossessiOn on the other. Its Wearer Is at once
constrained to admire and predetermined not 10
love- and precisely in so far as he is unconscious
even of that predetermnat0n does this dehcate
play of the features take on the appearance OF the
strongest emotion"
Every woman knows this, says Miss Phelps.
hazard tie asse, ion that not hundred women
in the United States know it, or know what Miss
Phelps is talking about when she says it, or that
hundred men in the United States ever had any
such feelings to express any face to express them
with; or if they did, that woman would III the
least know what they were driving at Man IS no
such complex animal. A woman Is capable OF
evolving such theory about his face. but let her
find the man! Men admire, and love. and deter
mine. with the somewhat savage simplicity that be-
longs to their primitive nature; but constraint TO
admire and predeterminatIon not 10 love- and I'M
consciousness of predeterminatiOn, balancing them
selves exactly half way between the victory OF the
man over his feelings and his feelings over the man,
all thrown into shade of expression which, after
all only darts across mans face--is combination
which few men can achieve, and few women per-
ceive.
The heroine, Avis is too much of an artist ever to
choose an awkward pose. If she had been alone in
nl1 elo hov
that firm hand of hers with just that slowly-sur-
rendered outline across the happy pillow. History
tells us that Josephine graceful even TO getting
into bed but it has always been supposed that it
was because she was Josephine, not because she was
an artist. Avis, entering the parlor, went straight
to the carmine curtain where Coy or Barbara would
not have ventured their complexion; for Avis knew
perfectly well that the curtain became her. Out-
side of a University town think it would he diff
cult to find girls who even thought whether "A
curtain was becoming or not, that it mattcrcd IN
the least which side of their heads they turned to
their lovers, even so much as knew whether there
were any intellectual side to their heads Miss Phelps
indeed cOnfuses herself with her girls. In one place
she says what is undoubtedly true, that Avis hap
pened to place herself by the carmine curtain in
another that she went to it swiftly because she was
an artist That curtain, by the way, is fearful
was simple enough piece of furniture; IN Hiss
Phelpss it takes q departure beginning by
clasping two warm arms of intense color across
the chill of bay-windOw "Warm arms OF intense
color are often seenOn washing-day, Tor instance
but though useful, are not essentially an
artistic object The curtn's satin thread lends
the lustre Of Jewels in dark setting, of water
under flaming sky. Then i'll the ire-light and gas
light it takes strange and vivid life it throbs
as if il held articulate passion, like that of
subject soul. 1t is at this stage of its that
Avis makes for it and would be happy to beat out
her soul with it as birds against light house win
dow. wave of pleasure flowed TO her from it in
every sense of soul and body. She had fierce kin
ship in her for the color as Ostrander had eleen
tel kinship for the sea. 1t made her happy to be
near it, Against this BACKGROUND of the passion Of
carmine she sat the evening through, silent and sol
tary Her dress toned upon black, or else She being
an artist should not and so would not have sat by
the carmnc curtain. BY which it appears that even
her fierce kindship for that color would not let her
beat her soul out with il except in gown tOning upon
black An artist, then, may beat herself black but
not black and blue against a carmine curtain. The
carmine curtain being also artist it would seem,
took her profile and gave it the harmony of a strong
antique. BY this time we are only too glad to let
the curtain fall.
1t is not that the carnine curtan is an unpoct,c
or unnatural or in any way Objectionable accessory
to the story. 1t becomes offensive only when it is
whipped and worn to rags in the violent endeavor to
make it effective. Unhappily, Eastlakc and the
Household Art Rooms on TremOnt-st have diffused
malign influence throughout New-England. Att-
tudinizing tyrannizes oyer taste. The simple and
modest nomenclature OF the fathers has given place
to baneful technology. Boston takes tho honest
old color we have lived in all our days. chrstens it
PompaiaR red, and instantly feels herself sufiused
with classic glow. She rises to the high art Of
bringing her breakfast-tea on lotus leaf aud