The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-25

and conception that 1t Is difficult to recognize 1t as the work of the man who wrote Tt Is Never Too Late to Mend" and Put Yourself in His Place" They were rugged, often un- couth. figh ting books. The Cloister and the Hearth" Is a work of art, majestic and often solemnly beautiful. The story unrolls as if it were a splendid tapestry of that 18th century of which 1t tells. No person can say that he knows English literature unless this book has been read.
 A T time little past the 18th
 "A century, when Louis XI was 4 \ sovereign of France, Edward " was wrongful King of England. and Philip The Good" having dispos- sessed his cousin Jacqueline and broken her heart reigned undisturbed in Hol land, here lived in the little Own of Tergou. in that country, the family Eiiassoen.
 The father, Elias. traded in curried leather. a material highly valued by the middling people because it would turn an ordinary knife, and this was no small virtue in a jerkin in that time when people were so liberal of cold steel that even at dinner a man would leave his meat for a while to carve his neighbor on a very moderate diff ference of opinion.
 Elias might have been wealthy had his wife not presented him with nine children. Every time he had acCumu- lated little Sol1 one of the children would become just old enough to need g start in life. The patient parents gave it ungrudgingly, and at last had the happiness of seeing four provided for worthily.
 Of the five who were left two could not work and two were unwilling. There was Giles, dwarf. immensely ugly and immensely strong, from whom honest dogs and unprejudiced women ran headlong. There was Cath crime a poor girl, that could move only on crutches. There were Sybrandt and Cornelis, who had made calculations and stuck by the cozy hearth waiting for dead mans shoes.
 The remaining child was one set apart. He was Gerard, and he was de- signed for the church-without any great hopes, because the family was not rich enough to buy him a bene- flee. and without any great fears. be- cause the church always could main those days.
 He was frivolous, for he indulged constantly in the trivialties of reading and penmanship and he could not be lured away from them even for meals The day was not long enough for him. He carried finder box and birthstone matches constantly and begged candle ends from everybody. so that he could sit up at heathenish hours-even as late as 8 o'clock of a winter night, when the very Burgomaster was a-bed.
 The monks. who had taught him. en- couraged him and were proud of their young lctor, who was to be hurried through the grades of exorcist and aco- lyte, that he might enter the priesthood as soon as possible.
 They discovered that he had a pretty art in caligraphy and coloring and gave him paints and vellum. When Margaret Van Eyck, sister of the great brothers Van Eyck, came to Tergou. she took Gerald to her heart as a fellow artist. Tn those strange days artists loved one another.
 Philip the Good, who had generous tastes, being an excellent hunter. fighter, liar and collector of curosties, was an excellent judge of art One day he of fered a prize for the best writing It was won by Gerard.
 The prize was 15 golden angels. sin .f, take man halfway through Europe, if he helped it out with wits
 In addition, the Princess Marie, Phil lips daughter, promised him a benefce.
 From that hour Gerard was looked upon as the stay of the family. Nothing was too good for him. Cornels and Sybrandt longed for the day when he should get his benefce, that his reverences purse might be ready for their assaults The Bishop questioned him speedily and made him an exorcist, which invested him with the power to cast out demons.
 Unluckily for the happiness of himself and his ambitious family, Gerard had brought back with him something be- sides 15 angels from his visit to the court of Philip He had met a girl, and he loved her.
 She was tall and young and fair When man looked at her proud young head he could not see that her gown was shabby. When he looked at her violet eyes he could not see the world, but only the sweet, brave innocence that shone there. Her hair, set in it's simple ilagree of silver, was like the Beauty sung in the Vulgate: An apple of gold in a net of silver"
 Margaret Brandt was the daughter of poor scholar and lived in a small house at Svenbergen, not far from Tergou. Since old Peter Brandt had studied all his life to relieve human ills, and his studies had given him skill in medicine and surgery far beyond his time, he had won the natural reward. His neighbors denounced and feared him as a magician In cases of extremity they accepted his help, but they reconciled themselves with heaven by paying him as little as possible after they were cured.
 The first man to discover Gerard's se- oret was the Burgomaster of Tergou, Khysbrecht van Swieten. He was might fly perturbed, not for the sake of Gerard B family or future, but because of 4 secret of his own.
 He had cheated Peter Brandt long ago. and most of the land that he held A nd by virtue of which he was a rich man was not his, but belonged to the unsus- pecting old scholar. The old mans un- worldiness and the girls ignorance of tha