New-York tribune., 1921-12-11
THE BEST OF ALL BEST SELLERS
illustration by DOUGLAS RYAN

copybook manners Of the young warrior OF
George III. A few evenings later, while
strolling with her father past the lodgings
where MontraviIle was glooming in his room
with Becour, she called out DO you bury
yourselves in the house this fine evening,
gents?" A short walk completely finished
Montravile, especially as Belcour had con-
vinced him that Charlotte wxs carrying on
an affair with Belcour. On the night before
his marriage Montraville sat up until dawn
tearfully composing his last letter to Char
lotte, for he is an epistolary model. His let
ter says:
Though Aave taken up my pen to ad-
dress you, my poor, injured girl, feel am
inadequate to the task, yet, however painful
the endeavor, l could not rest upon leaving
you forever without one kind line to bid you
adeu, to tell you how nay heart bleeds at the
remembrance Of what you was (sic) before
you saw the hated Montravilfe. Even now
imagination paints the scene, when, torn by
contending passions, when, struggling be-
tween love and duty, you tainted in my arms
and lifted you into the chaise."
Charlotte too had been writing letter to
her mother explaining her situation:
81 scorned to claim from his humanity
what could not obtain from his love. | was
conscious of having forfeited the only gem
that could render me respectable IN the eyes
of the world"
Belcour had now become the villain of the
piece, but Charlotte resisted his schemes. Yet
she was friendless and very poor. AS night
was falling ON cod stormy day in late De-
cember, with her baby about to be born, the
cruel landlady turned her out of the little
cottage. She dragged herself all the way to
town to appeal to La Rue for shelter.
Here the author had the material for au-
tEentc tragedy, but her incorrigible passion
for bathos spoils it all. La Rue was living in
luxury, married to her wealthy colonel. But
already the wicked woman was deceivirg her
e!ierly husband and was associasing with "a
young ensign Of weak intellectuals." With
this young man the abandoned woman was
seated playing game Of checkers when Char
lotte arrived She turned Charlotte away with
out batting an eye and went on with the game.
plying servant, however gave her shelter
in mean cabin, and the next morning her
girl baby born A few hours later her
father appeared from England, and at sight
of each other both Charlotte and he sank life
less in the arms Of attendants.'
The old gentleman revived, however, and
took the baby back with hin, to England.
Years later, one cold winters night, there was
knock at his door. It was La Rue, down
and out. "She had been separated from her
husband seven years, the chief Of which she
had passed in riot, dissipation and vice." A
few days later she died in hospital, "a strik-
ing example that vice, however prosperous in
the beginning, in the end leads only to misery
and shame"
Mrs Rowson hews to the tragedy, let the
tears fall as they will. She confesses frankly
in one of her numerous asides, that her tale
contains pentitude of "Ahsv' and "Ohs!"
and s'fainting, tears and distress" Then, with
a sideswipe at possible critics, she adds: ''lf
the heart is rendered impenetrable by un-
bounded prosperity or continuance of vice, I
expect not my tale to please, nay, even ex-
pect it to be thrown by with disgust" So
there!
The ong-ived popularity Of the story may
be due to the fact that it is based on matter
of real dramatic interest, or it may be that
Mrs Rowson lays her pathos and bathos on so
thick that she makes infallible appeal to
the great army of readers who like nothing SO
well as good cry. There is no reason why
the book would not make a successful movie
lnelodrama.