The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-07-22
NEW books.


itself willingly to Phoebe In Nancy Huston
Ranks's story OF -The Little Hills (The
Macmillan Company. For some time II u
not made known what it was that troubled
Phube II will he thought, very likely
that her agtations represented some phase
Of troubled love atfair-or It might be.
indeed, that they were occasioned by
love affair not particularly troubled. A
maiden contemplating the dawn OF love
even fortunate and smoothly proceeding
Overnight display, for no other reason
than the one Immediately apparent,
approximations and trepidations that shook
Ph9be's soul as she stood on the porch Of
her pleasant home, looking furtively abroad
through the thick veil Of vines and honey
suckles, and over the garden Of spice pinks
and the whitewashed fence to the road
beyond.
She was a nice girl. Phoebe, very lovely
and sweet and gentle. 1t says OF her In the
course OF the charming description that
beguiles us while we are waiting for an
account Of her troubles: "She was too
deeply absorbed now in thought to notice
that the sunbeams were still on the wing.
They had faded from gold into silver and
were slowly waning to mere shadows.
Yet they still flew through the flowers and
leaves at the faintest touch OF the breeze.
Fluttering down to the porch floor like
shadowy focks Of spirit butterflies they
lowered over her little slippers with the
narrow black ribbons crossed over the white
stockings; trembled up her mourning skirt
to alight on her tightly clasped hands and
CULVER about her sad, sweet face. But
she did notice how slowly the twilight was
falling, and looked wistfully across the big
road where the parsonage stood; lifting her
clouded eyes to the tall chimney, hoping
that the swallows we're beginning to circle
above it. Then che sighed, knowing that
it was only with the other mysterious
shadows of evening that these mysterious
shadow birds circled with slanting wings
circling in ever narrowing circles, till they
dropped silently down into their dark res
ting place with other mysteries OF night
Space Is not ours to dwell at length, as
the story does, upon the causes OF Phrbe's
trouble. Phoebe was not in love. Phoebe
was a widow. Ph9be's distress now was
due to her understanding that Mrs. Pottle
was pretty sure to drop in at any moment
with certain positive and urgent advice
Ordinarily Phoebe would have deferred
to Mrs. Politics. judgment, as the village
generally was in the habit OF doing, but
this was an occasion when it seemed to
her necessary to have a mind Of her own.
II only 1t would get dark enough for the
swallows TO go into the chimney! Then
Mrs Pottle would not be likely to come
until the next day. An unparalleled and
dreadful hour would be postponed. But
before the swallows ceased their circllng
the dreadful Mrs. Pottle arrived, and the
gentle Pho be had to withstand her, though
she nearly died in doing it.
Phpbe's case was undoubtedly hard
one. The young minister newly estab-
lished In the village had fallen victim to
consumption. Phoebe nursed him. He fell
in love with her. She did not love him at
all, but she married him for certain gen.
rous and pathetic reasons. On his death
bed he confded to her that he had been the
support of a crippled father and a step
mother. She offered to assume his obliga-
tions toward those necessitous two. He
said that his stepmother was proud and
would hardly permit herself to be helped
by ANYBODY who did not have the legal
right to assist her. To adjust this difficulty
she married him. He died in her arms
Immediately after the ceremony. 1t was
To tell fnUDS ludl ~ VouiS hoNVt wv "
have those two old people come to live
with her in the little house with the vine
clad porch and the spice pink garden that
Mrs. Potte called The old people came to
live with Phoebe Notwithstanding.
Sufficient trouble resulted, for Mrs. Pottle,
though she was not without her failings,
had the true prophetic instinct. The Grip
pied father proved to be an amiable man,
but the stepmother was terrible and hard
to bear. She was more alarming than
Mrs. Pottle herself. She had habit OF
swapping her eye, 40 that people jumped.
She might have been an inhabitant OF Mr..
Gilbert's Palace of Truth, when 1t came
to the matter of telling people what she
thought OF them or Of their doings. She was
a stern critic, with powers OF eScoriation
such as only the truthful and the outspoken
possess. Mother Rowan she is called in
the story. The novelist is very charitable
toward her. She calls her an honest woman
Of narrow mind and strenuous SOUL actu-
ated by single shining ambition-her duty
to her stepson, the dead minister. This
was her ideal, her way OF trying to hitch
her humble wagon to star. Her final act
O. devotion WAS to buy large and hand
some tombstone for her stepson's grave.
She bought it at auction, and expended
her entire savings for it's purchase.
Mother Rowan might have gone on TO the
end living in Phebes little house and
making life heavy for Phoebe, but merci-
fully this was not to be. The story pro-
yides a windfall for the stepmother and
carries her agreeably away. whereafter
the patient and gentle Phoebe ia permitted
to enter upon the reward provided in all
generous novels for all good girls. The tall
chimney about which the swallows circled
belonged to a house inhabited by second
minister, successor to the one who died.
He too fell in love with Phoebe, and he
was 80 handsome and worthy that she had
no choice but to fall in love with him. After
Mother Rowan's departure he went through
the gate in the whitewashed fence and
through the garden where the spice pinks
shed their fragrance, and so into the vine-
clad porch, where he found her waiting.
A story containing much that is variously
curious and charming. The second min