The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-03-26


 trict In London, in all tho parks and open spaces. with superintendent of playgrounds. l regard this as the natutai complement of the school education the children are already receiving, and IS of equal importance"
 It seems incredible that a novelist whose dramatic and imaginative work not only embodies high rehical teaching, put also shows the result of much spe- cial study, should be able to devote so much time to other interests Perhaps one secret of Mrs Waru accomplish ment is that she is a very regular worker, usually spending the forenoon in Writing. She is very retcent as to her methods of composition, but the follow ing extract from a speech made at the London Settlement tells us something:
 The story-teller plans it in this way or that. You scribble down on your first sheet of paper such and such incidents Your hero is to end badly or to end we'll. MaTriage-bells there shall certainly be ,Z- on that last far-off page. Or if you are In sterner mood, you see all the forces Of the pit unclaimed about your poor puppets. A shipwreck-a railway accl- dent-some new disease with long name you write it down inexorably But then you begin your work And after Il little while, as your grip tightens, as your character come out of the mist, they begin to make themselves, to shape their own story. Your idea remains. if 1t had any virtue. Often one looks back with a strange thrill to see how near the thought of the end has been to the thought Of the beginning. But on the way it has taken to itself a score of fresh forms and developments"
 
 In The Marriage of William Ashe Mrs. Ward has made the same advance in storytelling over Lady Roses Daughter as that made over Robert Elsmere For sheer charm of narrative and sustained interest The Marriage of William Ashe Is at the zenith of this remarkable nov elist's power The story opens in London, where William Ashe, son Of nobleman, stands at the outset of an ambitious ca reer In high politics. He is a man of power, charm and intellect; suspected a bit of laziness, yet conquerng when he makes the effort; above all, kindly and fne-minded. He meets Kitty Bristol. a very young girl ethereally lovely as nymph. whose antecedents have been but dubiously moral, yet with claim to good blood and with a conventual educa- tion-graceful. tantalizing in her brilliant play of mood and fancy, fond of shock ing priggish people. gifted and a1luring. Ashe falls desperately in love with her. and, despite repeated warnings from older and more cynical heads marries her. Ashe already stands high in the ranks of his party, and is a coming man. The dan ger that threatens him lies in peculiar quarter-his young uncertain wife. Lady Kitty plays pranks on men high in poli- tics-with consummate grace and impish ingenuity.
 The thrall of of her beauty lies over all who know her. She can love and torture those she loves and for love of her they submit. Her sensational esca- pades became the talk of London. Ashes reputation trembes in the balance. but his wife rushes on in wild career of mad folly, until finally the note of tragedy is sounded. The scenes between Kitty and her husband are powerful in stress of emotion and wonderful in psychology The portrayal of Kittys cratic. half-mad, but charming char acter never halts in consistency or fin it's appeal to the readers sympathy over his judgment. The authors pen never fal- ters as she draws the nobility of Ashe. the petty self-righteousness and treach- cry of Mary Lyster, the true and fine motherhood of Ashes mother. Lady Tranmore the coarse beauty of Nile. Ricci the dancer. the sinister fascina- tion of Geoffrev Cliffe. the noble good ness of the little Dean. The description of Venice are enticingly beautiful. Thus far it is Mrs. Wards masterwork. and will satisfy an even larger audience than she has reached heretofore