The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-02-26
Az Ii Happened.

This story by Mrs. Josephine Winfield
Brake, has for its heroine a widow. Selene
Barber who, when the narrative opens, is
close upon thirty years OF age. She had
been married at fifteen to a man much
older than herself, and when he died soon
after, leaving her but little money, she
lived in retirement with his mother. She
and her husband were OF good birth and
highly respectable. but were not lin So
ciety," in the small city where their home
was, and when, after his death. she ma
lures into rather striking beauty she is
looked upon somewhat eskance by vigilant
mothers of marriageable sons. However.
on the occasion of a local entertainment
her fitness to take the part OF Semiramis in
a tableaux is recognized and she is per-
suaded to appear In the royal robes. Her
remarkable beauty is at once disclosed to
those who had been blind 10 IL before,
among them being the wealthiest and most
eligible man of the town. He forthwith
wooes her ardently and she is wiling TO
marry him, but IL develops that he does
not intend marriage but contemplates an
unlawful alliance, his reason being that he
had promised his wife on her deathbed that
he would never marry again, also that his
mother and the other ladies of his social
ClIClt WOulu IOk dpDiONc. 0tiCuc cpufio
him, but lest she should succumb. fees I'm
company with her mother-in-law. and
takes up her residence in Virginia, where
she occupies herself with art study. The
villain pursues her and here. also, comes
another villain, wealthy New Yorker,
who takes the guise of a friend. II appears
that Selene is one of those remarkable
women, so common in books and so rare in
real life, who fascinates every man who
looks at her and causes him to regard her
with unholy thoughts, she at the same time
remaining in child-like innocence and
ignorance of her peculiar attraction and
learning nothing by experience. The Sec
ond villain, who Is a married man. after
gaining her confidence and putting her un-
der heavy financial obligations by helping
her to go to New York and pursue her art
studies, makes her a dishonorable PROPOSE
ton. When she rejects IL he persecutes
her. She goes 10 lawyer. who Is portrayed
as an honest. upright gentleman, but who
so far forgets himself as 10 kiss his beauu-
full client on the cheek at the second inter-
view. He does. however. put her I'm the
way of earning an honest living and or
eluding her pursuers. In time she paints
remarkable picture which is accepted at the
Academy of Fine Arts and creates a sensa-
ton. Meanwhile, she has met a man.
Weather and of higher position than any
of the others, who falls instantly in love
with her and proposes marriage. The cli-
max is at once triumphant and tragic.
Selene, arrayed in a new and extremely
becoming purple gown, visits the gallery
Wnere neT picture IL uufles anu lutIt De-
comes the observed of all observers. There
also come the men who have been most in
terested in her. The first villain she greets
with a show of liberation because OF the
love she once bore him; to the second she
has the pleasure Of declaring herself at
last free from money obligation to him and
of spurning his final approaches. The ac-
cepted lover comes 10 her side at this mo-
ment, and, as his whispered greeting shows
the relationship, villain No. 2, overcome by
rage at the battling of his schemes and by
the result of past dissipation, falls dead at
her feet. The story puts the morals Of the
average man I'm a very bad light, and
though its incidents are perhaps rather too
lurid to please the tastes or critical readers.
Ii may serve a purpose In warning inno-
cent and attractive widows OF the pitfalls
that confront them when they venture out
into the world. The author, Mrs. Brake, who
was formerly resident of indianapolis.
handles her material with considerable
literary skill. Published by the Neale
Company. Washington, ID. c.