The New York herald., 1922-04-30

J cence and without compassion.
But, after all, her analyses have
J not quite the preternaturally hard,
cold glitter Of Mrs. wharton's. She
is little more tolerant, or, at least
little less sardonic in her presenta-
is dissectng, when she does not ap-
| prove of them. She wastes no SYM
pathy on the victims but she is not
so much judging them as explaining
lin minute detail-just what IS
wrong with them.
The Roberta of this story is famil
lar enough modern product. In fact,
she has always existed but never has
had so much chance to exhibit her
self as nowadays. She is not so much
malicious, or even vicious, as just
empty-a very beautiful shell with
nothing much inside it, except self
ishness. But Mrs. Seymour never
makes the mistake OF picturing her
as monster. There is nothing crude
or exaggerated in the portrayal. 1t
is subtle. adroitly managed exam
ination, building up detail after de-
tail to complete picture.
Roberta has no robust view Of
life" and her marriage to the deli
cate minded Allan did not improve
her. "Still she dabbled about.on the
edge Of life, untouched by desire or
passion, yet slightly afraid that life
might. at this juncture. become in
convenient or painful" She is natu-
rally philanderer. but as Allan
finally discovers and says, "Roberta's
virtue Is coldness-thus far and no
| further" At first Allan had sup
posed he could 'mold" her, give her
a soul and accomplish miracles, but
he learns that there was nothing to
mold" Mrs. Seymour patiently and
thoroughly turns her inside out,
shakes her and demonstrates that
there was never anything there.
And the implication is that there are
plenty OF Robertas extant among
modern human beings.
The tale works up slowly and
steadily to an Unexpectedly tragic
solution, which, however, is the only
real way out of an impasse such as
that of the plot. Roberta's death f.
tingly ends a tragedy, and although
the machinery of it is perhaps some
thing of an evasion, concession TO
convention, it does well enough. and
is redeemed from being commonplace
by grim twist given it, in that TO
the very end Roberta is consistently
philandering instead of really break.
ing out of bounds.
But the real point of the story as
a whole is the fearful havoc the
Robertas can make in other lives:
not merely in her unfortunate hus-
bands, but in those of nearly all
with whom she comes i'm contact.
/ Even were it necessary or desirable
to do so. the plot is too intricate 10
allow any brief summary. 1t is
largely planned, complex affair.
rapid enough in movement and COW
ering only few years. from the
closing scenes of the war toward the
present, but equipped with a very
full cast of characters.
Other types of women are shown
in contrast to Roberta: several va
rieties of nicely differentiated women.
Guen. with her successful marriage
''of the intellect" her clear, clean
soul that is nevertheless not inhu-
man or passion1ess, is at the further
pole. Close to her is Caryl. who has
plenty of brains, plus a 'tempera-
ment" that she does not quite un-
derstand. THE brainy woman"
says the very youthful Caryl. either
doesn't have children or doesn't
want 'em. or comes to grief over the
business. Not always. 1 know. but
| it's a pretty safe generalization. /
think Nature ought to do better; she
ought to sort us out" To which her
entirely commonplace, older. mar
ried sister. Pen, asks, (Which would
you want-the brains or the babies?"
Caryrs reply is Both. / shouldn't
fit in. Wouldn't it be perfectly
damnable?"
There are several other variants.
shading in different ways toward the