The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1910-05-02

by word and In deed my love Tor EEL
ow-travelers along the Kings high
way"
Members of Marion Harland's fam
fly, her brothers. s. r. and G.. Percy
Iiawcs, have their homes in Richmond.
near Union Theological Seminary,
where many of her early friends or
their descendants reside. She comes
back to visit her relatives now and
again and to watch the growth OF the
Richmond that she used to know into
the buster and moro prosperous city
of to-day.
"Snow-Firc.'
BY the author of THE Martyrdom of
an Empress" Harper e Brothers, Of
New York. $3.50.
The court life of Russia and the city
OF st. Petersburg supply a background
for a romance rightly named in the
contrast 1t presents between a land of
white, feathery frs and cleaning blue
ice and the play of tunultuous human
passions that symbolic the Northern
Fires which leap from the threshold OF
the year and glare upon the horizon
red and low"
The author of THE Martyrdom of an
Empress" IS so thoroughly at home in
the court circles of different European
personages and splendid functions in
which they take part are life-like in
every respect. In the present instance
the Grand Duchess Daria wife of the
Grand Duke Stepan, the most beautiful.
accomplished and unhappy woman in
Russia. separated from her husband
when she was still a nero girl, is rep
resented in the book as having fallen
a victim to an absorbing love for Count
Serge Urlansky. of the Russian Chew
alier- Garde Regiment. The count is
years younger than the Grand Duchess
and is man of volatile and inconstant
nature. Notwithstanding the fact that
he is considered as one of the hand
soonest and most popular men In the
Muscovite army. And he has grown
weary of Daria and her love. He is
ashamed. moreover, to avow himself
to the new object OF his devotion. a
| youthful widow, Princess Sacha Viria-
now. with whom Alain dc CoetGten.
member of an old Breton family and a
| brother officer of Urlansky. is also in
| fatuated, until he has broken the ties
! existing between him and the Grand
! Duchess. The latter. suspecting the
| cause of Urlansky's Indifference, con-
/ trives. when the Car reprimands her
| for the scandal her preference towards
| the Chevalier-Guardsman is arousing.
| to have him sent on a secret mission to
! the Caucasus.
| During Urlansky's absence the Prin-
4 cess Sacha learns for the first time his
| real character. Disallusioned and sore
at heart, she falls readily in with the
/ plans of the Grand Duchess for her
| marriage with Alain de Coetmen. "A
| dramatic end afterward finishes a
story told with remarkable fire and
/ vigor. The history of the Duchess Da-
! ria. or so much as is told in this ro-
| nance. gives one disseminating
| glimpse of the very genuine unhappi-
/ ness that often exists in the palaces
! of the great of earth. Daria's person
| atty however, dominates the book. the
/ Princess Sacha seeming childish and
| slight beside her.
| Watercolor drawings by the author
are used to illustrate the different chap
/ ters of the novel, all OF which are head
\ ed with appropriate fragments OF verse.
/ The characterization of the different
| book personages and the skill displayed
| in the relation OF the scenes connected
with them are what might be expected
from the woman who first aroused lit
erary America by her great book, The
Martyrdom of an Empress"
"Lndy Merton, Colonist."
| BY Mrs. Humphrey Ward Double
day, Page & Co.., of New York. $3.50.
i In delightful contrast to sociological
i problems discussed in Marriage a La
Mode" Mrs. Wards second American
novel, principally relating to types
\ and scenes transpiring in Western
i Canada, comes as fresh revelation of
i the versatility of wonderful writer
who here demonstrates her ability to
tell love story so we'll as to make
her readers feel that she has absolute
j ly developed the line in fiction which
is pre- eminently suited to her talents.
Lady Merton. the heroine of the
story, belongs to the aristocratic class
OF English women, product of the
highest culture and the greatest re-
!, finement that English society can pro-
! duce She comes to ,America for the
sake of her brother Philip Gaddesden-
He has developed incipient lung
trouble. after severe attack of fever,
and it Is. hoped that the bracing air
OF the Canadies Rockies may supply
the health giving tonic needed by a
youth who is the idol of his widowed
mother and sister,
: During the journey from Montreal TO
Manitoba and the mountains Lady
Merton Is brought into contact with
q Canadian named George Anderson,
q man who. as an engineer has rem
dereQ valuable service W tiie Ial'ioa"
over which Lady Merton travels. His
resolute character his msnliness and
!, his independent pride have already
given him standing in the professional
and political community OF the new
country. with which he has grown up
and to which he Is passionately de-
voted. His influence is purely the re-
suit Of his own determination to con-
auer the world on behalf of himself
, and two brothers, aided BY him, until
trey could IN their turn fill good post-