The San Francisco call., 1904-08-21
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focks and herds. The very cackle of
the hens and the full murmur of their
brooding; the mares and their foals;
litter of tumbling, yelping pups. ex-
cited her as greatly as the sound Of
the sea. though to a softer, more in
explicable emotion. Little children
she adored; those who were childless
she hardly knew; she rarely crossed
their over-quiet thresholds: she did
not pity them; they did not exist. A
woman of the village only became a
living creature when she bore life;
when she renewed it. A baby was a
miracle to her. Her dis
dain or hatred of the aged, which in
deed marked her strongly, seemed
even at its greatest something foreign
to her mind. 1t was rather an indiffer-
ence than disdain, rather fear than
dislike; she was so young that the
old were aliens of another race"
So it is that to this young hedonist,
this worshiper with the Sybarites,
there comes the overwhelming love for
the ascetic. the man of iron will, con-
quering the lusts of the flesh Rachel,
inheritor of a mothers passion, as she
is of it the fruit, grows from innocence
to knowledge, from girlhood to woman
hood in the strength Of her love for
this man Of unbending puritanism out
of sheer fanatical love of fiagelIation
this Anthony-tempted beyond the
limit apportioned to his sainted name
sake even-marries a woman of shrlv-
a1a6 aud fhuc l,o,
against the great desire that is in him.
How this causes Rachel to lose every
grip On religious belief, on honor for
the souls high province-this is the
most dramatic portion of the story.
Loving to madness, knowing that she
is loved in return, yearning for the
consummation of her passions, this
woman, now woman only in body with
soul dead, breaks down the barriers
only after wild battling and finds her
reward linked with death.
Roberts has given a broad, vital
background to his story, commensur-
ate with the fierce play of passions
therein. With the careful attention to
detail Of Hardy he has put the little
fishing village on the Cornish coast
vividly before US, its people living and
full Of the hard, raw elements of sky
and sea. Pictures of cracking storms,
Of the swish and turmoil Of the waters
and the changing cycle Of the seasons
along rocky headlands make shifting
scenery for the dramatic action. The
homely life of the fisherfolk, with their
rugged sternness of precept and lax
ness of practice, gives color to the CEN
troll ralOt nf the tale
In one respect does the author show
lack of taste and in another a weak
ness sof style. A higher sense of re-
straint than that he has exerted would
have prevented his bringing the spirit
of his book dangerously near to the
typical Hall Caine quintessence of sub
nmated tragedy. In his passages
wherein the souls of Rachel and An
thony are scared by passion unre-
Quilted Roberts piles on the agony
to use a trite term-with too relentless
a hand. We see the two kept too long
on the saw edge of despair. This same
lack Of restraint also permits the
author Indulgence in a style at times
flowered and furbelowed as Column
bines crinoline. Exaggerations, color
ations. constant alliterations mar the
strength of the style not a little In
one instance the authors fancy even
carries him so far as to depict Slgurd,
the dog, with tears of sympathy rolling
down his facel
Yes, a good book to read is this
''Rachel Marr," provided one is not
foolishly weak enough to permit of It's