New-York tribune., 1903-03-07

ws-R-vorth TO marry his heiress. az N oe
cuihAr4 married Mile. de Courceles' sne ar
rangna tnresumably Ia order to reach nappy
ending. with Jacob and Julie safely uniteol
that he shall suffer fate kindred 70 tnaI Oh
N de Mora. His death, which occurs late IN
4La nook Gand In the month Of May). is fore
ahadowed In the sixteenth chapter, wnere tne
beroine's prenonition is thus described:
Jules eyes strained into the oarknessS me- neF
s,,ddenIv she gave q cry-she pressed her nanos
tn her heart Upon the darkness OUTSIDE 'neae
rose q face so sharply oraWn, SO t.a Ae n,1ivernS
tissues of the brain. It was Warkwortn 8 Iace
not as she had seen It last but In some sSFS ~
extremity Of physical tl-drawn. naegaEu; .tta6 ~
eoId 1su,est-the eyes glazed, the hair mates,
tSN necched Iins open as though they CRIED toE
help. She stood gazing. Tnen tne oZ eSSs her
ond the agony In them looked out upon heI'
Several questions arise from the foregOlIs e.
nos,tion of the indebtedness of Lady nose
n.ugbter,' TO the documentary souvenirs OF
HTue de- I,espinasse which have survived Ia
the frst place, the reader may well ask has sue
-,.6. sood use of her materiai7 The answer
y,r,st he in the Affirmative If we consicer AauS
Roses Daughter" simply as a story. Ii ls VII
denfably interesting. and has even Gel Co.
power II it weakens anywhere II Is at 'Ne
lated parting of the ways, when' for the s
cessfuI rival Of Nine. du Denand. presiuiiie
with immense eclat over an Independent sal0iI'
there is substituted unhappy young "oiN0i,
drifting into the consolation tnat husO0
with a dukedom provides. The last chapters Oh
.to ,o,,eI seem hurried and artificial perhaps
because by the time one has reached tnehl -
ra. baconoe impossible to shake OF the expecCa-
+icn that the Anglicized Julie will at least Oe
consistent But more troublesome than the ue
cIeusion Of the story, as story are the uiIe
ences between the character OF Mile. oe S Ae
ninasse and that of Mile. LIE Breton. MIS-
Ward. in the letter to The Tribune 20 "nicn
we have already referred, remarks: AlacA' -
was not possible for me to follow the sad' anu
I fear shameful, story Of the old julie very .al
not for me- at any rate. who prefer TO Deteve
In md naint the kindlier issues and poSSIDll-
tiez of human fate" This makes 1t all inc
more difficult for US to understand the tone
which Mrs Ward has given to her heroine. oe1
niscouception Of Julie de Lespinasse, "o'ii04t
who fairly breathed distinction and charrn' Inue'
be great indeed for her to imagine thaI ne4
Julie is-shau we say?-a more presentaole As-
IRE than her predecessor. Mile. LIE Breton has
not an atom of distinction or charm; she lS' Ia
fact. one of the most unpleasant heroines IL
has been our lot to meet In long time we are
constantly given to understand that she eAei'S
high mowers of fascination, but these are never
made manifest on the printed page we see neF
personality clearly enough, and what we cnlehy
notice about her is that she is common anu eve"
vulgar In fibre, essentially ninxllke ana petty
A whole gulf separates the French june WIN
the lofty traits her friends so admired from IAe
English Julie who, after expressing her Wiling
ness that her husband should abandon the duke
dom which he hates. receives the announcement
that he will, after all, retain it with the emo
ton reflected in these words:
But now that we are to keep it, will
69V-Wh6n
sad-I get pleasure from it? sha' 4 I pc aole ~
help it When we were at La Verna, l felt L tnaI
you ought to have been born in the tnlTIeenIII
Century that you were really meant to Wed
poverty and follow st. Frances. But no" SOS
have got to be horribly hopelessy rlcn. anu
I all the time am a worldling, and modern
What you'll suffer from. shall perhaps-en1oy'
The words are in keeping with the shallow
nature of Julie LIE Breton They are utterly out
of tune with the spirit of Julie de Lespinasse to
whose history-in perfect Illustration of the
irony Of thngs-she nevertheless owes, as IL
| were the very foundation Of her being.
The question of Julie Le Breton's, and Mrs.
Wards indebtedness occupies place apart
The authors own view of the matter, as set
forth in the letter cited above, is thus ex-
pressed: "I have OF course. made it sufficiently
plain. both BY calling my heroine Julie and by
several referen ,es and passages in the book
itself. which will have appealed at once to those
acquainted with that treasure-house Of human
psychology, the world of French memoirs.
This explanation leaves unchanged our conVic-
ton that the book should contain some formal
predatory statement clearing up the matter.
What of the readers who are not acquainted with
that treasure-house of human psychology, the
world of French memoirs? It is not in the least
discreditable to a large body Of educated read
ers to assume that the history of Mile de Les
pinasse may easily have escaped them The
name of Julie, in any case would hardly be
sufficient to make the Identification instant and
universal, and the several references and pas
sages' to which Mrs. Ward alluies in her let
ter seem of scarcely more practical use. With
no further acknowledgment offered in the book,
with the title page bearing the legend "a Novel,
by Mrs. Humphry Ward" the assumption is
that Lady Roses Daughter is to be taken as
a work proceeding solely from the authors
brain. Mrs. Ward has expressed herself as de
lighted tn find that the relation between it and
THE Life and Letters Of Mile. de Lespinasse"
has been discovered. This being the case, 1t
would seem as though she could have objec-
tion to prefxing to the novel the explicit &C
acknowledgement which have indicated as
being in order.
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