The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-08-29

of the beauty of sunsets on the Nile,
and the starlit equatorial evenings
these, III felicity of phrase and the
power to reproduce the picture as he
saw 1t, are literature OF high order.
The Worldwide interest In this book |
is shown in the fact that 1t will appear In
England. France, Germany and Sweden
in the respective languages of those
countries, and inquiries have been re-
celved from Spain, Brazil. Japan and
other nations with a view to repro
ducing the volumes there
"Ailsa Paige"
BY Robert w. Chambers. D. Apple
ton & Co., OF New York. $3.50.
Robert w. Chambers has been con-
sidered, above everything else. as the
exponent of modern American life, the
life exempified specially by the rich
and leisured New York set. He has
described this set at home and away
from home, at play and at work, IN
books that have interested large and
universal class OF readers
In "Ailsa Paige" he has chosen an
environment as different as possible
III the place OF all the allurements
| that wealth can devise, there Is the
bare grimness of hospital wards or
| the gun-swept hillsides of battlehelds
| panic-stricken flight Of retreat.
The most curious feature of the
| whole book, however, is that 1t is
| dominated from beginning to ending
| by the personality of a woman, who,
| though she has for many years passed
| out of the lives of husband whom
she never loved, and a son who was
ma meless through her misdotng, still
controls the destinies of these two
men and Of others bound up with
theirs
The woman in her girlhood was
| Constance Paige, named by her cousin,
who. like others, remembered her put
| to love her as the supremest of all
/ the many Virginia beauties of her DAY
| In the Valley of the James River.
While still child she was welded In
| a fit of caprice to a New York man
| of wealth, much older than herself re-
i served to sternnesst and as full OF
| conyentionalism as his child-wife was
| of imperious fancies and uncontroi-
liable Impulses. Misunderstanding ana
estrangement followed swift upon tho
forging of such wedding fetters. me
wife sought divorce and obtained
| it, then married her cousin. Her hrst
| husband revenged himself on her Dy
| having the decree of divorce set aside.
The cousin had a fall on the hunting
1 field some months later and was
killed To the woman who was neither
wife nor widow was then born a
| son. She named him Philip ormond
Berkeley, after the man she loved
4 When the son was a little laa MS
mother was supposed to have died IN
the fever camps of the Louisiana
bayou country. giving her lie LOT
i that of her child. In reality her 1ale
ytv,n a
was mystery. 1t being lnttiha 'et !,
that. already separated by TRAGEDY anu
the shadow of dishonor from al tna.
she held best and dearest, she put her
son into safe hands and went herselt
n int Roman Catholic sisterhood. Just
once during the cruel stress OF war
dia the shadow Of her personality
hover around the scenes that hao
formerly known her and glide between
tho rose-chintz hangings of room
cot aside as hers in the gay days
of her oueendom at Paige Court Ano
even this was .elieved to be Vlslon
horn of a fever-racked man dis.e,,.p
cred fancy, rather than an aPpea..ns
cry from a buried past for recognltlot
and forgiveness.
; j,;fe history in partwere concerned tn'
end had come twenty-five years peAo.
tho story opens in New YORK, " IN
,,aar1s61 on the eve OF the war Dc
, tween the States. ,.,,a,ay
Her son. Philip Ormond Berkeley
now grown to manhood ana III pos
, | session of the estate she oequeatne'
! him. had rechlessly squanoereo ~
best part of it on the stock marhe
i His career had. however, oeeh Wa.vno
] by Colonel Arran. the diVorceu NO
4 band of Berkeley's mother, and at
. rnaetinp between these two. the stor!
: OF the book begins with full reVeia
!, ton of the mothers history to TN
son and OF the part played in 1T b!
e Colonel Arran. who wished to slV'
n Philin his name and acknowledge mn
as his heir to the world.
q TO the younger man the story tolf
t by the elder meant the DESTRUCTION Q
), al, that he had held purest and mos
: sacred in life, the memory ana tl
; fair fame of his mother. Ringing paci
Il Colonel Arran's offers of help, seems
n in him only the agent OF rate Wn
brought untold suffering on womal
: her son held most dear. he left tn
: house desperate and despairing, nj
IS world in ruins around him. his prid
g and hope overthrown, man Wluou
d a name to offer wife and therep
d bereft of the future toward whlc
v mems hearts naturally turn.
N At this crisis of his life he me
e Ailsa Paige. Unconsciously to him
1t self. her faith in his manhood stoppo
" his footsteps in the downward caree
re upon which he had started and pre-
IT vented him from utter shipwreck. HI
d after experience of war, with Its ster
- lessons Of obedience to authority an
"a submission to duty purged his heal
Of of all selfishness and taught him neet
q ed lessons of forgiveness and undel
IN standing.
e. The mention Of places and inciden
4 around Richmond during the seve
a days conflict, when McClellans trooI
1e were seeking to enter the city, adj
,e realism to this wartime romance. III
IS location of Paige Court and of Mar.
=. Mead is established to some extent
70 the mind bv the mention of them {
10 being in the neighborhood of Edmur
- Rutfin's home. Just exactly whi
- homes these were must be left. beyon
ie this, to the imagination. A war ba
=, loon spoken of by Mr.. Chambers {
I. the intrepid" is remembered by
=. Fredericksburg man, who says that
=, 1858, when this balloon was not In US
70 1t was located near tho old Philltr
70 house, just back of Chatham. It's Of
- seryations at that time We're mad