Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-29
FRAuLEIN SCHMIDT AND MIR. AN

abeth and Her German Garden. new
York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
A very charming love story is told here
In letters. A one-sided correspondence it is,
too for only 'Fraulein Schmidts" epistles
are given They are enough. however, to
reveal the personalities of the German girl
and her English lover, and of various other
men and women as well.
The letters begin with naive but whole
hearted confession of the woman's love-
She is the poverty stricken daughter of an
obscure German scholar. The young man
has been sent to the father to be taught
German; Rose-Marie has aided her step
mother in cooking and mending for the
boarders; Anstruther is the nephew of a
peer, and destined for the diplomatic serv-
Ice. In a month the man has proved faith
less. 1t is there that inconspicuous Frau
lein Schmidt proves her quality. At the
very moment of the fearful blow she writes:
But do you suppose that having given
you all this am going to give you my soul
as we'll? To moan my life away, my beau
tiful life? You are not worth it. You are
not worth anything, hardly. You are quite
invertebrate. My life shall be splendid In
spite of you"
1t may be interesting to note that she
makes good her challenge. Out of the ut
most rigor of circumstances she rebuilds
her splendid" life. In spite of his falsity,
the man still yields to the tie. The letters
are recommended, friendly letters, in
which Rose-Marie reveals her heroic, hu-
morous, tender personality. Anstruther,
whether the first love was the real love or
whether he Is as she defines him, IN
vertebrate returns to her. After heart
less succession of letters and kilograms, In
which the girl refuses to allow him to come
TO her denies that she loves him, the story
ends with a final message: Il shall not
write again''-an apparent enigma to
which, however, every reader will have his
solution II is he wished that so
gallant a creature as "Fraulein Schmidt
might have been vouchsafed a more salts
factory lover. incidentally the life of
little German town is realistically and hu-
morously presented.
MEMOIRS OF THE COMTESsE DE
BOIGNE, 17S1-1S14. Edited from the
original MS, by NJ Charles Nicouland.
With portrait. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons. Washington: Wood
ward Lothrop.
The Comtesse de Boigne, she very
modestly states, had no intention Of writing
a history, and wished merely to be a chron-
icler. 'T have said nothing" she writes,
except that which believe to be the truth.
] am amusing myself in these scattered
notes by reviving, like a series Of shadows,
without order or consecution, the different
recollections which recur to my memory.
I am more inclined to enlarge upon minor
remain In my memory"
With these reflections she relates all the
gossip which went round the salons of her
time. Wit, simplicity and keen criticism
mark the telling of her anecdotes.
No such entertaining "reminiscences of this
period, 1T81-1S14, have been published be-
fore for many years. These are the last of
the great memoirs of that time. Their pub
lication has been put off until the present
day 1.-THE countess died in 1860 on account
OF the many personal remarks and anec-
dotes affecting living people. The memoirs
have been given an original subtitle, which
the author explains in predatory note:
II had never thought Of giving a title to
these disconnected pages until the binder
to whom / intrusted them wished to know
what title he should place upon the back of
the volume. did not know what to reply.
venirs, Nine. de Caylus has made this title
her own, and recent publications have some
what debased it, I therefore replied: will
think of it With this idea in mind,
dreamt during the night that my nephew
was asked what those two clasped volumes
were Those are the stories of my aunt
Here goes for the stories of my aunt!
cried when / woke up, and hence the book
has been baptised Stories of an Aunt
The stories are irresistible or Illuminating,
and reproduce her period better than the
researches of the most erudite historian.
For Illustration
THE Due de Laval was a really eccentric
character, a phenomenon rare in any coun-
try, yet rarer in France. and rarer still in
the class to which he belonged. Since he
entered society he had always lived splen-
didly upon his profits at play without suf-
ferng any loss of reputation. He never
seemed to frequent gaming houses any
more than other men Of his position. He
never went about looking for pigeons to
pluck, but he calculated upon an income
of 100000 crowns from cards as he would