New-York tribune., 1899-07-30
FICTION.
A CLEVER TALE OF DIsILLUsIoNMENT
THE GAME AND THE CANDLE. BY Rhoda
RrOnghinn. l2mO nn- 200 u. ApplotOn q 90.

TIE GAME AND THE CANDLE. By Rnoud
Broughton. 12mo pp 3O6. ID. Appleton 90.
THE REPENTANCE OF A PRIVATE sECRE-
TARY. BY stephen Gwynn. l2mo, PIP lyi Johh
Lane.
THE WOI.FS long HOWL. BY Stanley Water
loo. 12mo, pp. &S. Herbert ;. Stone % %
Miss Rroughton gives her reader as well as
her heroine, plenty Of time before showing that
the game played by the latter was not worth
the candle. In fact, the revelation does not
ccme until the penultimate chapter. Before
reaching that tragic stage in the story one is
deftly kept wondering to what the climax
will be like Poor Jane Etheredge, the heroine
has herself only one idea. She has suffered
eight long years of married life with man
years her senior and separated from her in
spirit by all the matters of temperament with
which years have nothing to do. When she is
released at last though with the unpleasant
Consciousness of having been disirherited by
her dying husband she conceas with difficulty
her impatience to meet the lover to whom she
had dutifully said farewell years before. She
is very engaging in her period Of waiting, and
the author has introduced into that period de-
lightfu sketches OF the modern selfseekng
young woman and self-ndulgent widow, In the
persons of her herone's companions
James friendship with the widow Lady Barnes
promises swiftly to achieve her reunion with
her old love. The two meet, they resume their
happiness, they are promptly engaged, and then
just as is approaching the last few pages
with anticipations of the sound of wedding bells
the crash comes and the title of the book is
appreciated. Just how the change comes we
leave the reader to find out for himself. The
book is so pleasantly written that he will be
willing TO read every page in order to reach the
climax.
With its facile cynicism and rather squad
tone THE Repentance Of a Private Secretary"
has one salient merit. 1t is short. 1t is the
old story of the "menage a trois" and the diff
fculties usually resulting therefrom. Mr.
Gwynn's treatment of the situation is meant
to be candid and vivacious The candor is that
Of the young person whose discovery of the
world has filled him with wild desire to set
every one free from the cant of convention.
The vivacty is forced one misses the wit that
the author endeavors to put into his work, for
getting that wit does not come by hard labor
The quality that saves the novel from being
quite inconsequentia and even vulgar is the
pulsive, but they bear traces of fairly just
appreciation Of human nature
Mr.. WaterIoos volume of short stories is ac-
ceptable chiefly for its dryly humorous handling
of the tragic side of commonplace life. The
Wolfs Long Howl" which gives the title to
the book, celebrates just such a type and just
such circumstances one may count on meet
ing every day in the prosaic places of civiliZa-
ton. 1t is almost trite. But the little touches
of Characterization, the little glimpses of lifes
drama, all presented in such way that
the general effect is new and moving Some
times the author be savagely frank as in
An UIm' a tale of revenge which makes one
shudder but he has also a fund of genaty
upon which he generally prefers to draw. THE
Hair Of the Dog That Bit Him" is captivating
in its unexpected development and positively
quaint moral"