New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-01-25


an heiress- At the same time he sought to hold
Julie to him, and she was torn between desire
to break with him and willingness to sccept
the situation. 1t was in the presence If this
crisis that she wrote to him the words quoted
above. Sainte Beuve speaks OF a decisive mo.
ment, impossible not TO note. but "a moment
we must VEIL in which it is TO be inferred that
passion got the better hand of discretion; but
the story, as We read it in her celebrated let
ters, is simply one of a woman loving with all
her heart, recognizing the hopelessness Of her
feeling, and finally dying of the agony it causes
her. 1t is a story intensely human and roman
tic, a classic of its kind. Let US glance now
at the story embodied in Lady Roses Daugh-
ter"
Julie LIE Breton is the natural daughter of a
woman of rank. After her mothers death she
is left with no resources save those Of her own
character and an inherited income of hun
dred pounds year She is serving as a quasi
holiday governess'' when she is discovered by
Lady Henry, who engages her as a companion
and reader on the clear understanding that she
is to make no claim upon her mothers family
Lady Henry, one of the most brilliant women Of
her time, is al this period nearly blind, I'M
perious and tyrannicaI She is proud of her
salon, and Of her sway over the distinguished
men who frequent it, especially Montresor,
noted statesman, and she feels that she has,
through the help she has given him in the past,
a special claim upon Jacob Delafeld, young
kinsman of hers. At first she is grateful for
the assistance rendered to her by her compan-
ion in entertaining her circle But Mile. lie
Breton soon fascinates and wins to herself Lady
Henry's habitues; she receives them unknown
to her protectress, and when the latter discovers
the treachery, it seems to her to be, she
thrusts the young woman out Of the house The
habitues, notably Jacob and the Duchess Of
Crowborough, stand by the victim of this move
and the latter provides her with home of her
own, fully furnished, where there is every pros
pect of her reigning over salon unsurpassed,
though not UnrivaIIed, in the nineteenth century.
Jacob has been at her feet, but she falls in love
with a military man, Captain Warkworth, and
not only uses all the power and influence she
has acquired in Lady Henry's salon to get him
appointed to an important African mission but
gives him all the passion in her soul He loves
her but not completely, and secretly engages
himself to an heiress. At the same time he
seeks to hold Julie to him, and she is torn be-
tween a desire to break with him and willing
ness to accept the situation. 1t is her attitude
in the presence of this crisis that is described IN
the words quoted above parallel to the de-
cisive moment mentioned by Sainte Beuve, impos-
sible not to note but "a moment must veil"
is supplied by Mrs Ward in the January install
nent of her story, wherein passion is repre-
scented as getting the better hand of discretion
in the tormented heroine. Julie is described as
conserving to spend two days in France with
Warkworth before she parts from him forever;
she goes to Paris to meet him, but as she alight5
from the train in the Nord Station she encoun-
tiers Jacob Deafeld, who tells her that her
grandfather, Lord Lackington, is dying and in
sists upon her coming to him. She sends
telegram to her lover, and proceeds to return TO
London "Once more the train moved through
the night The miles flew blythe miles that
forever parted her from Warkworth."
Readers of George Meredith will recall a SINH
lar episode in Diana of the Crossways.' When
Diana, young, unhappy and fascinating the
ruler Of the most brilliant salon in London, is
on the verge of flying to France with Percy
Dacier, she encounters Redworth type very
like Jacob, who upsets her reckless plan by
taking her TO the bedside of Emma Dunstane,
her dearest friend. But it is not of another
novel that We chiefly think as We follow the
course of Lady Roses Daughter 1t IS OF the
recorded history of Julie de Lespinasse, HVIng
woman of the eighteenth century in France
The differences between the two narratives are
differences of time and milicu, there Is
transition from the eighteenth to the nineteenth
century the scene changes from Paris to Lon
don. Also, of course, there is the difference
between a woman whose briIIianCe is vivid and
alive TO this day, and a whose brilllance
is not made manifest but is described. Salnte