The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-04-15

$3.50
conventional trammels. With so much
To occupy the mind IL seems like an
imposition on the reader 10 ask him
also to study the psychology Of a
woman who loves WI men at once.
/ There is a strange lack OF human
feeling In all the parties concerned.
! which may be Intentional. The wife is
a poeticai. spritelike creature. a sort
OF Cndine; a community Of tastes and
some timely sympathy draws her to
her husbands best friend. and her
husband no doubt neglects her because
he is engrossed in his business. Blu
there seems to I've little reason for her
loving the new man, especially as she
Is always conscious that she loves her
husband. The affair leaves the i'm
preston that the author Is turning
the situation into an abstract p~y-
Geological problem which he Toes not
venture To solve. The husbands be-
havior. admirable and intelligent as It
IL, seems cold blooded even in an
efficiency machine. and the unlucky
lover cannot he defended. The refine
ments OF ~passionless intellectual inf
deity do not harmonize with the vivid
realism of the setting n the poetical
pictures OF outdoor California.
4 wife's Ca%pricrs.
II is painful to see a young author
turn against the idols he has wor-
shipped as Gouverveur Morris does In
We Three ,Appletons). To lie sure.
neither he nor the amiable narrator
and victim Of the story has a word to
say against the modern American girl.
Yet both expose her utter %selfishness
and frivolity. The narrator Is a very
l.kable youth with no %pretension to
brains. but a gentleman throughout.
His story Of his early years and Of his
admiration for his friends wife is de-
li=htful and delicate comedy. She is
"A charming creature who has married
for love and is very happy with her
husband and her two children. She
has always had her own way. and has
tnJoyed the present and
fiirted with any man who is at hand.
Her husband is called away on busi-
re~s for a few davs. during which she
entertains herself with his friend:
when he returns she informs him that
she no longer loves him and asks him
to divorce her. The friend has lost his
head. too. and drastic measures are
used by his family and by her husband
to prevent the tive from making fools
of themselves. AS the wife's disregard
~" everything ri herself and her
wishes is demonstrated the story
turns rather to tragedy: the girl
comes out "f it all right. but the con-
ISOLATION devised for the narrator is
hardly satisfactory eve with the hint
Of disaster at the end 1t is heauti-
fully executed work: the girl is very
lifelike and the lover and his parents
+ are delightful.
One Modern Wife.
The trouble that can he made by a
well intentioned but Historically i'm
luisIve young woman bound to have
her own way is described by Cameron
Mackenzie in Mr.. and Mrs. Pierce
'podd. Mead AMI Company. After
surviving several i%nfatuations for
careers about which she knows moth
ing she has married an estimable and
patient young man and is happy with
him and her baby. She seizes on q
chance remark OF a friend Of her hus-
hands. who is not overscrupulous in
business nor in other matters. Is daz.
lied with his possessing a new auto
mobile n decides that her husband
shall become a financial power. She
knows and cares nothing about bust.
ness, yet forces him to ngage unwill-
ingly in a commercial undertaking for
which he knows he is not fitted. She
hlames him for his lack OF success. re-
peatedly interfercs in a maddenine
way n upsets his calculations: she
rosents the remonstrances and the re-
fusals to abet her Of her family and
friends. She believes her husband Is
faithless to her, comes near losing her
baby and finds out that her automobile
friend wishes To make love to her
Then she fortunately discovers thai
she has been making a fool Of herself
and with the assistance Of her Ions
suffering husband starts afresh. Thu
authors dissection OF this type OF
modern girl, ambitious. ignorant ant
deaf to advice. is pitiless. he ascribes
her faults To youth and evidently ad.
mires her, hut the reader, while hs
may bc sorry for her. will hardly share
lis admiration. He will sympathiz<
with the husband and will like severa
elderly lookers-on who are powerles.
to help. The picture here drawn car
he recognized in every community.
Allan Quartermain Revived.
With great geniality Sir II. Ride
liaggard in The Irory child ULong
mans. Green and Company allows hi
African hero to relate an episode IL
his career that he had passed over
lie knows that he is no stranger 4
the reader and 50 does not hesitate L
refer him to his earlier yarns and l.
bring In again former companions. ii
Il, gins humorOusly with some rathe
funny experiences in an English coun
try house. but before long We ar
again in South Africa and are huntin,
with grim determination for a strang
white race in the heart of the cont
nent. They have spirited away I
guard a sacred image an Englis
woman who must be rescued: they ar
opposed by an inferior race who's
talisman Is a demon elephant, whic
must be destroyed. There IL muc
exciting work to be done which Ala
Quartermain and his friends are a
competent as ever to handle. Whe
he closes tho book the reader will re-
ioice that after all these years tn
I~iaggards still ride as they did before
NJ A.. AHA1A> rwA