New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-09-13
MR., JAMES On LOVE.
A NOVEL SHEDDING NEW LIGHT ON
MODERN ROMANCE


tidious amateur of the emotions. He has always
abhorred the obvious in human affairs, and IN
his later works that taste for the subtle ana
the curious which has controlled him from the
beginning has become a Veritable obsessloh
Paradoxically. this lifelong devotee Of life as II
is lived in the most conventional stratum OF
society is keen in the search for what Is
bizarre as the most sensational writer Of de-
tective stories or the widest romancer that
ever trod in the footsteps of Rider Haggard OF
Poe He has not merely gone in for mysti-
cisrn, as in The Turn OF the Screw or The
Sacred Fount," but has sought, on a plane with
nothing fantastic about it at all, situations IN
the last degree morbid. In his latest mover he
provides a perfect illustration Of the aonor-
mality to which his passion for strange motives
has carried him. tine Wings of the Dove
treats of some of the oldest people and one OF
the oldest transactions have ever encoun-
tered, even in this authors extensive collection
of oddities.
The scene is laid chiefly in the London Of the
present time; the characters are English ana
American Kate Croy. the heroine, is we are
assured. an extraordinarily distinguished young
person She is not only beautiful. but is pos
sessed of character highly original. and or
manners to which the same phrase might De
applied, if il We're not that they are represented
having a certain Colorless perfecnon' tHe
mark of caste rather than Of an individual 1Ills
paragon belongs. however, to an inapoSSlple
family with a vulgar sister who has made d
hopelessly plebeian marriage and father whose
iniquities have banished him from the society OF
the elect. Her only salvation lies in accepting
the hospitality-and the rule-of rlch aunt
Mrs. Lowder This formidable old widow Aunt
Maud, as she is generally called, imposes some
heavy conditions upon her niece In the first
place she insists that if Kate is TO live with
her she must give up her father. Mr.. Croy.
fortunately. is not unwilling. Rascal that ne Is
he fancies that somehow. in due time. he VIII
manage to profit by his daughters identif1ca-
ton of herself with a wealthy patroness. But
Aunt Maud has her plan A girl as brilliant as
Kate, she decides, can only be married to a man
of really important position OF course lover
appears upon the scene-Mr Morton Densher'
capable but needy journalist with no promise
whatever of a career worthy Of Miss Croy-alld
threatens the success of Aunt Maud's matrl-
Jnonial campaign. The story relates to the
counter-campaign carried by the lovers, but
the reader need not imagine that he is TO be
treated 10 one more romance of tempest-tossed
passion Mr. Densher and his Kate are about
as passionate as a pair of dolls.
They abound in the capacity for intrigue Kate
IS a past mistress Of the art The two agree
that they must play a waiting game, and more
while remaining mistaken in their fidelity TO
each other. This is curious enough, but It is
nothing to what follows. An old friend Of Aunt
Maud turns up, bringing with her young
American heiress, a girl Of untold millions, as
charming Miss Croy herself. but with one
thing lacking, good health. In fact she is
doomed to al early death. She fails in love
with Morton Densher and aunt Maud is only
too pleased at the idea of their marrying, since
that would leave her undisturbed in her plans
for Kate's apotheosis. Meanwhile Kate has her
own way of looking at the situation. She pro-
poses that Densher should marry the American
acquire her fortune and thereby make
it possible for them TO throw Aunt Maud over,
it being assumed that the heiress's death would
not be long III coming. OF course she does not
put it in this brutal way. Kate is never brutal.
She reaches her point through d series Of the
subtlest suggestions, that Densher himself
is hardly conscious OF just what she is driving
at. and. to do him justice he is little stag
gered when her meaning at last dawns upon
him. 1t is in Miily TheaIe's own drawing room
in Venice that Kate indicates 10 him, rather
than tells him. what he is TO do, speaking with
impatience Of his density in requiring details
IF you want things named she says, you
must name them" and the narrative continues
a follows:
ing names over; and there was only one which
at last stared at him there dreadful that prop
erly fitted Since she's to die I'm to marry
her?'
1t struck him even at the moment as fine in
her that she met it with wncing nor mine
Ing she might, for the grace Of silence for
favor TO their conditions. have only answered
him with her eyes But her lips bravely moved.
ITO marry her"
$50 that when her death has taken place I
shall In the natural course have rnonev?p
1t was before him enough now. and he had
mot inc SIX ha haH op1-
the spot, considerably cold with the thought
that all along-to his stupidity his tirnjdity-it
had been, it had been only what she meant
Now that he was in possession, moreover she
couldn't forbear, strangely enough, to pronounce
the words she had not pronounced; they broke
through her controlled and coloress voice as if
she should be ashamed to the very end TO have
flinched- You'll in the natural course have
money We shall in the natural course be free &"
''Oh, oh, OH" DepSher softly murmured
Poor Densher may well have murrnured He
was not a born blackguard-weak as he is we
rather like him, through part of the book at any
rate-aad IL comes hard TO him TO carry the bur
den of false sentiment, false friendship, false
everything, which the Tesourceful and sinlous
Kate places so deftly upon his shoulders He
makes the effort, but at the last moment takes
flight from Venice, and when Milly Theale dies
leaving him q fortune. he refuses TO touch It
in the concluding scene Of the novel, Kate en-
deaVors to learn his reasons and finally asks him
for his word Of honor that he is not in love
with the memory OF the dead woman. He evades
the question, and she leaves him, saying; we
shall never be again WERE That is OBJ
vious but the queer thing is that Mr. James
has not realized, even down to the end Of his
last chapter, the monstrous inconsistency of his
whole work Kate Croy is his central figure. it
is her atmosphere that pervades the book: VET
while he IS forever painting her as a woman Of
essentially fine character, he exhibits her as