New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1912-11-23

their marriage, he receives at the last
moment a telegram asking him to de-
lay his coming. Continuing the jour
ney, however. in a mood of disappoint-
ment and vexation, George Darrow
falls in with Sophy Viner. pretty girl
lust then at odds with the world ana
the two, crossing the Channel together
spend a week or ten days in Paris on
terms of intimacy clearly foreshadow-
ing trouble for every one concerned
Nothing is lacking in their relations 10
build UP that hidden menace TO future
happiness which Mrs. Wharton so fe-
l,cttousIy indicates in her title. AS
though fairly to clinch the squalid sig
niflcance Of Darrow's transgression'
the scene for Il is found In a Parlslah
terminus hotel, Of all unromantic
places in the world perhaps the dreari-
est and unloveliest. Thenceforth the
action rapidly grows tense. when al
last Darrow meets Mrs. Leath at her
chateau and wins her II is only to find
that she has engaged Miss Viner as
governess for her little daughter, and
presently, ito put the gilded roof on
the horror" the widows stepson an
nounces his engagement to Sophy!
The reader, like Darrow, is a-tiptoe
with curiosity How Is any one 70
navigate these nominally smiling
waters without meeting disaster on
the reef? wreckage Of some sort Is
inevitable. But the problem Is very
human one, and Mrs. Wharton Is no
believer in the easy intervention OF
the god from the machine. She de-
yelops her solution with excellent good
Judgment, which is to say that she
leaves II a matter Of character. Ihus'
while il Is her plot that makes the I'M
r,ed,ate appeal, II IL in her analyses
that she does most to hold us. we say
this. TOO, IN spite Of the fact that OF III
her people there is only one, the widow
who is sympathetic or brings conVic-
ton Mrs, Wharton has rarely been
very fortunate with her men, and Dar-
row. swaying the hearts OF TWO woniei
,,,nnosed 70 be worth loving, is no
more credible than any OF his preoe-
cessors Like Selden. too, in The
House Of Mirth." this authors pesI
hook. he is the kind OF man "hoii
aven the least captious OF male op-
servers would find In nowise ciuo-
able" sophy's sheer youth and ner
essential innocence-'It seemed "
barrow that her experience mao Haue
her free without hardness ana sell
assured without assertiveness -ohiS
stamp with a shabbier meanness MS
readiness TO slip into controi Oh he'
emotions which, in the familiar EMS
ush phrase which he must have heara
In his time, Is not cricket "heh'
be,np confronted with the ghastiy
state of affairs under Mrs. Leath
roof, he goes on from lie TO lie, COM
passion for his trouble is lost In con-
tempt for his smugness. 1t Is not
from such lips as his that one cares
to accept philosophy like the ioi-
lowing:
When you've lived a little longer youli
ssa U,haf complex blundereTs we all are,
how we are struck blind sometimes anu
mad sometimes-and then, when our sign.
and our senses come back, how we ha ne
10 set 10 work, and build up, little ~
little. BIT By bit, the precious things wea
smashed 10 atoms without knowing IL
Lies Just a perpetual piecing together
of broken bits.
Taken by itself the passage has an
almost scriptural sound, but coming
from this complacent egotist 1t puts
bad taste In the mouth. Yet here, as
we gladly take leave of Darrow, we
approach what is really brilliant In
Mrs. Whartons book. her adjustments