New-York tribune., 1903-11-22

and Robert Barr. With Frontspiece by c. D.
Williams. 12mo, pp S56. Frederick A Stokes
Company.
A DEAL, IN WHEAT AND OTHER STORIES
MOTIFS Illustrated by Remington, Leyendecker
day, Page & Co.
Charles Scribner's Sons.
The lovers introduced in the first part of Mrs
Whartons novelette, seem, in the opening
pages, to be destined for happiness a matter
Of course Indeed, their natures and their en-
Nironment give no obvious promise of any dra-
matte developments in their romance. One ex-
poets such types as Kate Orme and Denis Pey-
ton to live out their lives in kind of well bred
piacdity disdainful strangers to all tempestu-
things. 1t is, however, among just such
types that the psychologist in fiction finds the
most interesting material, inasmuch as their
spiritual crises are untouched by any of the adj
Ventitious elements so dear to the writer's whose
natural aim is at best, good stage effect. There
is nothing of the stage in Sanctuary" The book
draws its vitality from the authors penetrating
feeling for the inner life, for those issues which
shake the souls of men and women, yet leave
them with an apparently unchanged demeanOr
toward the world. When Kate Orne's belief in
the she has promised to marry is cruelty
destroyed, her first impulse is to turn her back
forever upon him and his dishOnor. Two things
give her pause. In the first place, to her bitter
anazement, she sees that she find no SYM
pathy for her point of view among those in
whose sense of principle she has always had
certain confidence. Furthermore, reflection tells
her that any child of Denis Peyton's is bound
to inherit something of the mans weakness, and,
with a nobility that has its quixotic and even
unnatural side but which Mrs. Wharton some
how contrives to make very plausible, she re-
solves to sacrifice herself At least. she win
make of discounting a possible disaster by
providing the probable heir with a mother fore
armed and bent upon keeping him in the
straight and narrow path.
With this termination to the story Of her
rnaidenhood Sanctuary is broken of, and 1t Il
resumed with the heroine. now in her widow
hood, breathlessly watching the evolution of her
sons character. The tension is somewhat re-
laxed in the second part of the book. The post
ure of affairs is not SO gloomy; the atmosphere
is not so heavily charged with poignant mean
ings. Dick Peyton an enthusiastic young archi-
tect, does much to increase his mothers anxiety,
but he does much also to raise her hopes, and in
the glimpses she gives of his life among
his comrades in his profession Mrs. Wharton
adds needed air of everyday naturalness to
her pages. But she does not forget the main
question, which is one of character, and, bring
ing upon the scene, in the person of Miss Gle
make more complex the problem confronting
Dick and his mother. she deepens the interest
OF her story intensifying the significance of its
central motive Is the of Denis Peyton to
justify the step taken by his mother for his sake
long before he born? To answer that ques-
tiOn would be to take the edge from the read
er's enjoyment of a book which owes a good
deal cf its success to the authors skill In hold
ing in suspense to the outcome Of her plot.
This much may legitimately state, that Mrs.
Wharton has never used to better purpose her
instinct for curious spiritual adventures and
her de,icacy In the analysis Of them. "Sanctu-
airy" is a commercially brief narrative. answer
ing in its form to the requirements of theme
moulded throughout by emotions of concentrat-
ed force The style is lucid and polished with
scarce hint of mannerism, the recurrence here
and there of precisely" that sadly overworked
word of the psychological school, being all that
is to be noted on this score By great good luck
an unusually capable illustrator has been found
in Mr. Clark. His drawings for the first part of
the story are especially useful in indicating it's
date through the costumes studied, and his
deftness in characterization has failed him only
once in the portrait of Mrs Peyton. facing
page 40.
No editorial note is prefxed to 'The O'Ruddy"
TO enlighten to just how much of the book
was written by the late Stephen Crane. 1t is
fair to assume that he was responsible for some
Of the CurtIy humorous turns of speech that are