The San Francisco call., 1906-04-01
NODEL DEALS WITH
EDIL OF IDLENEEy

Morley Roberts new novel, 1.-THE
Idlers." is a strong study of the evil ef-
feet or idleness upon the morals. 1t is
a tale of English high life, and idleness
is shown to have made some of the mem
bers of that class do some quite low
things 1t is. strongly written, very in
teresting, severely arraIgns the idle
women of London as being responsible
for the immoralities Of men, makes the
full force of the story strike one of these
idle women for her sins against the sew
enth commandment, and let's off the men
altogether TOO lightly 1or committing the
same sin. The author scores the woman
who is the idle sinner In the case with
all the severity of a Puritan preacher;
and the idle young man, who is repre-
sented as the victim of her wiles, has
his offenses condoned with a lightness
of pen touch that might almost satisfy
the ideals Of the Cavaliers of the times
of Charles the Second. Tacitly the book
seems to teach the double standard. That
statement needs the mitigation of ex-
planning that the individuals painted are
a deeply caiculatingly. false woman of 27
and a carelessly moraled but kind
hearted young man in the early twenties.
The book may be classified as belonging
to those innumerable which, deal with
1.-The eternal triangle" the man and his
wife and the other man. The tragedy of
this triangle, however, was that there
were two other men, But for that the
sinfulness might have gone smoother-in
this world at least The game was quad
ranguiar, and one of the men, who was
delighted to have the woman singly false
for his dear sake, grew murderously jeal-
Gus when he found out the lady had been
doubly false for some other fellows sake
Then the avenging killing comes, and
Morley describes it well. 1t is dramat-
ically told, and the remainder of the ~ol-
une is useful as a preparation of the
reader for that dreadful outcome. 1t is
much more satisfying to literary taste
to have adultery end in murder than
merely in divorce court proceedings. The
reader will enjoy the fore part of the
novel much more by thus knowing be-
forehand that something more cleansing
is coming after the scandal than the
pusilIanimously easy adjustment by court
decree which settlement Is all the early
chapters hint at.
The principal characters are: Renee
Buckingham, handsome, clever and un-
scrupulous wife of a wealthy biscuit and
jam manufacturer, who is planning TO
become a peer; her husband, who trusts
her because he believes she is cold as ice
and. loving only herself, will never risk
losing her fine house and fifty thousand
a year by being false to him; Jack Bex-
ley. handsome and athletic young Eng
lishman. who has been pampered by his
wealthy parents and who has nothing to
do but hunt game and visit women: Cap
tain Raynour, who is Renee's lover, but
who has gone away to India in perform
ance of soldiers difficult and hazardous
duties: and Cecilia Clarendon, a fine.
clever, aristocratic young woman, who is
engaged to Jack BexIey- Some of the
minor characters. but very necessary to
the development of the story, are: Jack
BexIey's father, an indulgent parent and
wealthy country gentleman; Tom Claren-
don. father of Cecilia, who studies scien
tific farming and adores his daughter.
and Mrs. Billy Rayney, who is unscrupu
lous, scheming and mercenary.