Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-10-10
THE LIBRARY TABLE
By the BookIovev

villa Gathers new. novel, Shadows
on the Rock" should be read as a
sequel to Agnes Repplier'ss delightful
biographical study '"Mere Marie of the
Ursulines." Both tell of pioneer life
In French Canada, centering In Que
bee, and the first follows the second
In period. Predatory to Book Of
Shadows on the Rock" Villa Gather
quotes from Q letter of Marie de I'm
carnation, the Mere Marie of Agnes
Repplier, in which she says: Every
thing here is wild, the flowers as well
quebec, perched on It's rock above the
st. Lawrence, represented q scrap of
French civilization in the New World,
and the people enduring the hard life
there were but Shadows on the Rock
The Rock, as Villa Gather describes
1t, was "cunningly built over with
churches, converts, Notifications, gar
dens, following the natural irregulari-
ties of the headland on which they
stood; some high, some low, some
thrust up on spur, some nesting in
hollow. some SPRAYING unevenly
along declivity. The Chateau Saint
Louis, gray stone, with steep dormer
roofs, on the very edge Of the cliff
overlooking the river. sat level; but
lust beside It the convent and church
Of the Reco1let friars ran downhill, as
IL It were sliding backward. To land
ward, in low wen sheltered spot, lay
the Convent Of the Ursulines
lower still stood the massive founda-
ton of the Jesuits, facing the cathe-
dral. Immediately behind the cathedral
the cliff ran up sheer again, shot out
into a jutting spur, and there, high
in the blue air, between heaven and
earth, rose old Bishop Laval's Sem
mary Beneath It the rock fell away
IN a succession Of terraces like a cir
cular staircase; on one Of these was
the new bishops new palace, its gar
dens on the terrace below"
The most important everyday char
acters in Shadows on the Rock" are
the apothecary. Euclide Auclair, who
Frontenac, Governor General Of Can
ada, and his little daughter Cecile.
Auclair's destiny had been determined
by the fact that his fathers apothecary
shop on the Quai des Celestine, in Paris.
was next to the town house Of the
Frontenacs. In Quebec Auclair visited
the chateau almost daily and was
aided in many ways by his patron.
Ce cile, after the death Of her mother,
made 1t almost o religion to keep UP
the niceties Of life, the traditions Nine.
Auclair had brought from France. So,
in the small salon behind the shop,
where Auclair dispensed banks, pow
ders, elixirs and conserves, Cecile kept
the windows shining, the draperies
fresh, fire burning in the fireplace
and at night the dining table set with
her mothers white linen and the silver
candlesticks. The dinner was the. i'm
If
Auclair and Cecile and they delighted
to ask a friend to share their savory
soup, roast chicken, with q glass OF
red or white wine and q dessert OF
cream cheese and COOS Jerry, plum or
Wild strawberry conserve. Almost as
real as the characters of Auclair and
Cecile are the others who come and
go in their daily life on the rock.
There are Nicholas Pigeon. the baker,
and his gloomy. deformed assistant
Blinker; timid little Jacques Gaux. son
of the claimable 'Toinette GauX.
who keeps sailors lodging house in
the Lower Town. Giorgio. the drummer
bow at the chateau; Noel Pommier
the cobbler, and his crippled mother;
the old chirurgien. Gervais Beaudoin
and Pierre Charron. hero of the fur
trade, and the coureurs de bois."
The official. and for the most part
historical, characters form the back
ground of Shadows on the Rock,
Count Frontenac lives at the Chateau,
not always in favor with the King in
France, and growing old in what has
become an exile, since he is not allowed
to return toe France. TIE old bishop
Mgr. de Laval lives in his seminary,
in naked poverty" because he has
given all his revenues to the church
and the poor. He celebrates mass every
morning at 4 o'clock in the Cathedral,
and many good people who did not
want to go to mass at all, when they
heard that hoarse. frosty bell changing
out under the black sky where there
was not yet even a hint of daybreak,
groaned and went to the church. Be-
cause they thought of the old bishop
at the end of the bell rope. and because
his will was stronger than theirs" The
new bishop, Mgr. de Saint-Vallier, lives
In luxury and pride in the palace which
he has built for himself, and does not
work harmoniously with the old bishop
or sympathize with his ascetic ideas
Mother Juschereau de Saint-Ignace Is
superior of the Hotel Dieu of the Hos
pitalieres and Father Hector Saint-Cyr
Is under a vow of perpetual service in
the New World and lives at the Sault
Mission, in the wilderness.
.. ~
Long after the facts. another book
on the love affair Of Parnell and kath-
arine O'Shea has been published, by
Henry Harrison, who was in his youth
an enthusiastic follower of Parnen. In
1914 was published a book by Katharine
O'Shea herself then Mrs. Parnel. The
facts stated in that book regarding the
connection of Parnell and Mrs. O'Shea
and Capt. O'Shea's divorce suit do not
altogether accord with those given in
Capt. Harrison's book. The difference
seems to lie in the question whether or
not Parnell was a sneak In his relations
with Mrs. OShea. Capt. Harrison
holds that he was at all times anxious
to do away with concealments and to
permit divorce. so that he could marry
Mrs. O'Shea, but that she insisted on
the attempt to keep up appearances
and that Capt. o,shea was not deceived,
had long severed connection with his
wife and delayed divorce probably be-
cause he was politically associated with
Parnell.
Whenever q new book of travel in
Ireland appears, or whenever one has
oneself visited that unspoiled country,
one wonders why Ireland is not oftener
included in the itineraries of American
tourists. H. V. Morton's book, In
search of Ireland" conveys the charm
of all any one r,'5ses who does not see
Ireland. All Uses of Irish life in
terest Mr.. Morto.i, as we'll as the natural
beauty of the country. He visited
n1onasteries, investigated the electrif1-
cation project in connection with the
Shannon River, made friends with the
salmon fishermen in Galway, spent
hours In the museum of Dublin, where
is the famous Book of Kells sampled
"poteen" and found it rather throat
burning haunted country markets,
Y.ir FOII -fol falkad with