Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-12
CONRAD CREATES A
GREAT HEROINE
Dona Rita, in "The. Arroau Of
Cold," Is a Girl Whom Every
Woman Viii Secretly Envy

When one lays down "The Arrow of
Gold,' Joseph Conrad's latest novel.
1t is with feelings of admiration, sym
pathy and pity for the altogether ad-
mirable heroine. Yet the Puritan NOR
alists would say she deserves nothing
but condemnation.
Conrad has written fascinating love
story, with the plet of Don Carlos to
seize the throne Of Spain in 1915 as
background. The heroine once had
an affair with the Pretender. and she is
loyal enough to his interests to consent
to act as an agent for him in smoothing
the way of his assistants in France.
The French officials are all susceptible
to her influence, for she exercises n
magic fascination over every man with
whom she comes in contact. Her "ca
reer' began when, at the age of seven
teen, she attracted the attention of
Henry Allegro, n rich and distinguished
Partisan artist. She had tended goats
in the Pyrenees in her earlier girlhood.
and was living in Paris with her uncle
when the tale opens. Allegro takes
her into his house as one of the works
OF art which he is continually collect
ing.s She is described as the perfection
OF feminine grace and beauty. Allegro
died and left his fortune to her. The
man who tells the story--he is the one
who loved her best and whom she loved
alone of all the men she knew-says
that Allegre's death had the character
of heartless desertion. at gave one a
glimpse of amazing egoism in senti-
ment to which one could hardly give
a name. mysterious appropriation of
one human being by another as if in
defiance Of unexprcssed things and for
an unheard of satisfaction of an in
conceivible PRIDE And Dona Rita.
the girl, says in explaining the name
which she assumed at his death: MY
name Henry Allegro had taken from
me, like all the rest of what | had once
been" So she calls herself Madame
de Lastaola. after little glen in
which she had tended goats in her
youthful innocence.
Her story is the tragic tale of one
caught in the mcshcs of fate when too
young to understand what was happen
ing and who is compelled to struggle
for the rest of her life. Yet she is
honest and true. But as she is repre-
sented as a type Of the eternal woman.
she is more than the mere plaything of
the men whom she knows. The hero.
with whom she hides herself for SIX
months in an Alpine village, is young
sea captain. who adorcs her with no
reservations whatever, and he teaches
her, what love is. He fights duel over
her and narrowly escapes death, and
she. conscious of her limitations and OF
the right of man to his life, hcrol"ally
leaves him just as he is recovering from
his injuries and before he is able to ap-
prcciate the weight of the blow which
separation will inflict.
There are four other women in the
tale. each distinct types. and four or
five men move through the pages, each
stirred in different ways by love for the
marvellous woman. No woman can
read the book without envying the
heroine that perfection of feminine
charm which Conrad succeeds in per
suading one Dona Rita possessed, ano
no man can read it without paying his
tr;bute of admiration to the mastertu
skill of the author in interpreting the
emotions of men when confronted by
the eternal woman.
TILE ARROW OF GOLD. By Joseph Con,
rad Garden City: Doubleday rage