Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-25
THE LIBRARY TABLE
BY the .BookIoVer

pectedly interrupted by the event.
Perhaps her birth in q weaver's cot
tage, rather an eccentric performance
for the daughter Of man of station
and property, was premonitory of the
fact that she was to become a captain
of industry. The life story of Mary
Hansyke, who becomes Mary Roxby
and then Mary Hervey, is told by
Storm Jameson in her trilogy, THE
Lovely Ship; THE Voyage Home" and
"a Richer Dust" A widow at 10,
with her 2-year-old son at her side
and all her possessions in a small red
leather box studded with nails, she
drives from her husbands decaying
manor Of Roxby House to the ship
ping yard Of her mothers brother at
Danesacre and asks for job. Her
ruthless, possessing business Shrewd-
ness In advance Of his times and his
competitors, has yet a soft spot in his
heart for his gallant niece and takes
her into his Office and his home, "as
large as any Shipowner's house in
DaneSacre. It was gray and
square and It had seen so many fine
ships sail away from under its very
walls that something OF the dignity
and mystery of the sea invested It,.
The life of the harbor came up to its
work, an apprentices wage and pa
thence under the bullying Of Mark
Henry, Mary suddenly finds herself in
q position OF overwhelming RESPONSE
bility. Mark Henry has died after an
operation performed without anesthetic
and has cleft every penny he owned,
the line, the yard and the Tees-side
Works to Mary Roxby." Her career
as q shipbuilder, which is destined to
last for over half a century and to
be a part OF the most radical changes
in English life, begins with the death
of Mark Henry, who has given her her
chance. The volume, The Lovely
Ship" takes Mary through many sue
cesses, her marriage with Hugh Hervey
which Is wrecked by the rivalry Of her
business, her narrow escape from sac
rificing the business TO her emotions
in a crisis. At the end of this first
volume we feel that whatever may
happen to Mary Hervey in the future,
Cartons Yard and Works will always
be first. She has hardened. her in
tense emotional nature has been brought
under control, she Is still capable OF
suffering, but there will be no more
yielding.
In THE Voyage Home" Mary Hervey
sells the old Carton shipyard and moves
from the quiet waters of the little
DaneSacre Harbour" north to the banks
of the Tees, and the Carton Shipbuild-
ing and Marine Engineering Works re-
places Mark Henrys more modest yard
and works. In the year 1886 she is ~
years old and one of the successful
industrialists Of England. Her inSensi-
tiveness was astonishing, but so were
her energy. her courage and her
will Yet she was not tortuous,
and her intellect was limited in
herself q new house, of solid, comfort
able magnifcence, not far from the
works at Middlesborough and much
larger than Mark Henry's substantial
house at DaneSacre. She and her hus-
band are reconciled, after their es-
arrangement and the turbulent expert
ences of both. but bitter memories and
her growing dominance prevent perfect
companionship. She has not been as
successful with her children as with
her business. The son of her first mar
riage, Richard Roxby, a charming boy
and youth. dutiful, interested in Gar
tons, which he is some day to inherit,
seems all that Mary could desire; then,
smarting after being thrown over by a
disdainful beauty, he rebels against the
tyranny of his mother and Cartons and
leaves for a stay of several years in
America, and Mary knows she has lost
him. Her cider daughter, Clara. loving
and well meaning, Is clumsy, obtuse and
headachy, and Mary deSpises her. The
younger daughter, Sylvia, stubborn and
impertinent, never admits her mother s
authority. and in her hasty marriage
throws it over entirely. Lifelong es-
arrangement results After a voyage to
America, where Hugh almost dies of
yellow fever. Mary and her husband
grow closer together, until he becomes
the chief personal interest Of her mid
die and old age. But as her life ad-
vances. her phenomenal business sue
cess is accompanied by personal losses
and disappointments.
4
In the third volume of the trilogy,
"A Richer Dust" Mary falls back on
the third generation of her family.
With her own son, Richard. gone, she
chooses her grandson, Nicholas Roxby,
Clara's son. as her heir and successor
in Cartons. The World War comes,
Nicholas goes to France and. miracu-
! lousy, fights through the four years
physically unframed. The profits of
Cartons mount higher and higher.
Mary, as chairman of the board of di-
rectorS, becomes more and more arro-
CANT. She dictates the war policy of
the firm to the grumbling directors,
VINO can do nothing but grumble, be-
cause she Is the majority stakeholder.
In her family she is equally arrogant.
She never speaks to Clara except to
snub her. Sylvia and her children are
living In comparative poverty, but she
refuses to do anything for them or to
offer reconciliation, though she desires
1t. Hugh alone has from her tender
ness. After the war Nicholas disap-
points her and refuses TO go on in Gar
tons. He wants to choose his own life.
With no one left, she sells her shares, at
huge profit. and makes plans for the
disposal of her fortune before her death.
Her children and grandchildren Will re-
ceive very little of it. Finally. over ~:
alone, still vital, but living more ano
more in the memories OF her chlldhooo
and early womanhood. she remains
mistress Of every situation. She builds
q new house and Quarrels with the ar
chitect. She travels through France,
though she hates the French. and wears
out the patience of her elderly malo:
She plans gardens to duplicate those OF
Roxby House when she went there as
bride Of IS. To the end she Is IN
domitable. an eminent Victorian, a
Titan among women. The character OF
Mary Hervey is an achievement IN moo
ern fiction and deserves to stand oeSloe
Galsworthy's Soames Forsyte.
~
In the Economic and Social History
Of the World War" published by the
Carnegie Endowment for international
Peace, ten volumes have been puollSheo
| In the Russian series under the editor
ship Of Prof. Paul Vinogradof OF OK
ford, now deceased, and DR.. Michael i.
Florinsky, lecturer in economic history
at Columbia University. The most re-
cent volume, by Dr. Florinsky, Is the
End Of the Russian Empire" 1t Is TIE
story of the collapse of czarism and al
its organization under the strain OF the
World War and the release OF the forces
! Of revolution which had long beer
gathering. Complete Reorganization OF