The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-11-14
Literary Lights and Shadohs
BY s. MAYS BALL

IT you cared for, enthused over and still 1 take up to read from time to time that great novel, "The Garden of Allah,' written by MT Robert Hichens, the com paratively young Englshman who was first introduced to fame, at least notorie- ty, when he sent forth anonymously ''The Green Carnation," so many years ago. it seems now-you have for yourself and any one you can pursuade to read Bella Donna great. very great treat. Bella Donna" is a big novel, big in many ways. Tn number of pages. 537, and thor oughly large in the interest holding ca- pacity of each of those 5S7 sheets
 Bella Donna" was the name given by certain members of the social and half world to Mrs Chepstow, a great London beauty in decline. Her day of glory had
 been fairly long, but now 1t seemed to be over. She was past 40. She said she
 was 36, but she was over 40. Goodness
 some say, keeps women fresh. Mrs
 Chepstow had tried great many means of keeping fresh, but she had omitted that She had been well-born girl, the daughter of aristocratic but impecunious and extravagant parents. Mrs. Chep- slows life was very possibly influenced by her parents pecuniary troubles. When she was very young she learned to be frightened of poverty. She had known what 1t was to be sold up twice before she was 2O and this probably led her to prefer the alternative of being sold. At any. rate when she was in her Fist year, | she was wed to MT. Wodehouse Chep- stow. a rich brewer to whom she had
 not even taken a fancy, and as Mrs Chepstow she made a great fame in Lon l don society as a beauty. She was christ
 ened Bella Donna. She was photograph l ed. written about, worshipped by impor- 1 tant people until her celebrity spread far | f-1-..4 1 a woman who is only beautiful and who
 does nothing can spread in the era of the l paragraph.
 And then presently she was the hero
 inc of a great divorce case.
 MT Chepstow forgetting that among
 the duties required of the modern hus- l band Is the faculty of turning a blind eye upon the passing fancies of a lovely and
 a generally admired wife, suddenly pro- 1 claimed some ugly truths. and completely ruined Mrs. ChepStow's reputation. He
 won his case. He got heavy damages out 1 of a well known married man. The mar rfed mans wife was forced to divorce him. And Mrs. Chepstow was socially done for Then began a new period of her life, period utterly different from all that had preceded it. She was at this time only 26. and in the zenith of her beauty Every one supposed that the man to whom she owed her ruin would marry her as soon as 1t was possible Un- fortunately, he died before the decree nlsi was made absolute. Mrs. Chepstow's future had been committed to the Fates and they had turned down their thumbs. Notorious, lovely, nov badly off. still young, she was left to shift for herself In the world.
 "It was then that there came to the surface of her character a trait that was not beautiful. She developed a love af ccfn al fl, ,fx71r She became the famous or the infamous Mrs. Chepstow. She had no child to be good for Her father was dead. Her mother lived in Brussels with some for eign relatives. She had made a failure of one life. She resolved that she would make success of another. And for a long time she was very successful. Men were at her feet and ministered to her desires. She lived as she seemed to de. sire to live, magniflcently. She was given more than most good women are given and she seemed to revel in its pos session. But though she loved money, her parents traits were repeated in her. She was a spendthrift.
 "Then, as she approached 40, the fresh ness of her beauty began to fade. She had been too well known, and had to en- dure the fate of those who have long been talked about. Men said of her. Mrs. Chepstow-Oh. she's been going a deuce of a time. She must be well over 30. Women-good women especially-pro- nounced her nearer GO.
 "She was seen about with very young men. almost boys. People sneered when they spoke of her. She moved from her house in Park Lane to flat in Victoria street, then to little house in Kensing- ton. Then she gave that up and took small place in the country. Then she got sick of that and went to live in London hotel She sold her yacht. She sold a quantity of diamonds. And people con- tlnued to say, Mrs. Chepstow-oh she must be well over 50.' Undoubtedly she was face to face with very bad period. With every month that passed loneliness stared at her more fixedly, looked at her in the eyes till she began to feel almost dazed, almost hypnotized. A dullness crept over her.
 "Forty struck-forty-one-fo
 And then one morning of June, Dr. Meyer Isaacson sat slipping his coffee and looking at her name. written against the time, 5:30, in his book of consultations"
 Bella Donna, Mrs Chepstow. had gone to see Dr. Isaacson to do what he did not at that time know she intended doing, namely, to tell him a few things in con- fdence as a physician, in his consultation room, about herself, so that receiving this information direct from her as a pa- tient he would be compelled as a physi- clan to hold 1t as confidence. For Mrs. :, Chepstow, in her present condition of dull | greyness, had gone to nearly the end of | her string. She had met, become interest l ed in and had decided to entangle close l friend of Dr. Isaacson who was much
 dependent upon the advice of the great l doctor. She therefore tied the hands of 1 Dr. Isaacson while she began to charm,
 as she soon did, Nigel Arrnine. a young | Englishman of wealth. culture, high 1 ideals, and best of all. the next heir to a great title and landed estaes.
 1 The real Bella Donna, the real Mrs i Chepstow, is described by MT. Hichens as 1 one who had ''sold herself body and soul, to the devil for material things. the woman
 who betrays the reputation of her sex by
 being absolutely concentrated upon her ! self and whose desires only extend to the i vulgar satsfactions brought by pros- porous expenditure of money on clothes, 1 jewels, yachts, houses, motors, every 1 thing that rouses wonder and admiration
 In utterly second-rate minds. The su-
 preme selhshness of the materialist which 1 is like no other selhshness, was fully alive
 within her. Believing not at all in any future for her soul, she desired present
 joy for her clamorous body as no one not
 materialist could ever desire" There i you have Bella Donna, about whom the
 book so thrillingly, so entertainlngly and
 so thoroughly convincingly relates this
 story fl. tho shape of a wonderful novel no greater novel has been written in
 years.
 Mrs. Chepstow succeeds in inveigling