Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1932-03-19
~ SARAH G. BOWERM1N.

strong trilogy. "The Lovely Ship" THE
Voyage Home" and "A Richer Dust" in
which we see Mary Hansyke become
Mary Roxby and then Mary Hervey.
snd develop from = sturdy, obstinate
girl into the head OF . large English
|shipbuilding firm, THAT Was Yester-
day" seems merely an ordinarily inter-
eating novel. Heryey Russell, grand
daughter Of Mary Hervey, is neither
the girl nor the woman her grand
mother was. With her self-pity and
her constantly flowing tears. her entire
lack Of an ordered plan in life. she is
an unworthy descendant of the woman
who forced her uncle, Mark Carton, to
take her into Cartons Shipbuilding
Works, and then after q few years sue
ceeded him as owner and manager. In
her alterations of stubbornness and
sentimentality Hervey is not unlike her
grandmother, but her stubbornness
never accomplishes anything and her
sentimentality recurS too often, Her
vey's heredity derives partly from her
scholar grandfather, Hugh Hervey, who
struggled for period against his domi-
neering wife and then succumbed for
all the remainder of his life. 1t seems
likely that Storm Jameson is commenc-
ing another trilogy with That Was
Yesterday" for at the close of the book
HerTey Russell Vane is only in her
early twentieS and has just taken step
which promises to help her out of the
slough in which her marriage with
Penn Vane has landed her.
4 4
"That Was Yesterday" has for It's
setting the period of the World War,
but Is not war story. The narrative
does not leave England. Penn Vane
makes many and successful efforts 20
keep from being sent to the battle front
in France, so he remains in England,
and more than half suspects Hervey s
secret wish, unacknowledge even to her
self, that he would 60 to France. This
feeling Of hers almost comes to the sur
face when her young brother Jake, after
winning many honorS in the Flying
Corps, which It embarrassed him greatly
to have mentioned when he was at
home on leave, Is killed in action. On
his last leave, which he spends at
Danesacre with his mother and Hervey,
Jake diffidently recommends that Penn
''try for the Flying Corps" II don't
mean IS q pilot. He could be an equip
naent ofhcer. They-er-stay on the
ground. Why not? Some one has
to-to keep the rest Of us in the air. "
Penn secures the appointment in the
Flying Corps and is then-signif1cant
transferred with great frequence from
one stores. depot to another, SO that
Heryey is continually packing up her
own small belongings and her baby S
folding cot, bath and carriage and NOV
ing from one town and one set OF
shabby rooms to another. Love does not
thrive on this mode of life and on
PENIS habit OF spending large pro-
portion OF his small pay on himself
while Hervey often lives almost entirely
ON bread and tea. Quarrels, growing
ever more violent, alternate with recon-
citations, growing ever more perfume
tory Yet Hervey refuses the cordial in
yltation of an American captain to di-
vorce Penn and marry him.
,s $50 4 ~
The intense feeling Of Storm Jameson
for England, which marks every parf
of her trilogy, is also evident in this
book. Hervey says to Capt. Gage, I'D
rather be poor and unsafe IN England
than rich and safe In America" The
home OF Heryey's mother, Sylvia Rus
sell, is at Danesacre, in Yorkshire, near
the Carton works. Storm Jameson's
own home is at Whitby, one of the
oldest of Yorkshire coast towns, the
scene OF a German naval bombardment
during the World War. Such an at
tack on Danesacre is described in That
Was Yesterday" Hervey, visiting her
mother, is awakened in the morning by
the Gathering noise of shells crashing
into the town" and hastily dresses and
rushes up the path to the top Of the
cliff Either she was not afraid or
she did not realize that shells are
meant to damage something or some
one" She sees the German ships not
far out from the shore, just changing
their course, and a shell lands few
hundred yards from her and splinters
into the road. A young sentry in his
box orders her away from the cliffs,
himself very nervous and wondering
whether he should fire. Next to her
Danesacre setting, which she obviously
loves best, Storm Jameson treats with
most color the village and countryside
on the. Hampshire downs, where Penn
is for time stationed This corner
Of Hampshire has loveliness one can
only call England. Nothing is grand
or startling; there are no vivid colors,
no splendors The downs are washed
in delicately ON q clear sky: the edges
are delicate and rounded, yet firm .
1t is an England simple yet civilized. y
Sir Walter Raleigh was not obliged
to spell his name with monotonous
uniformity, as 81 different spellings
were in use, according to his latest
biographer, Donald Barr Chidsey, in
his "Sir Walter Raleigh: That Damned
UpStart." The violent subtitle is per-
haps hardly justified by the material
Of the book. Raleigh seems just to
have missed success all his life and to
have shared the unscrupulousness of
his age, but he had some good qualities
and was probably no more of q
damned upstart" than many others of
the EliZabethan reign. The Roman
Catholics of England perhaps thought
Of the Queen herself as something to
which such an epithet might apply.
Raleigh was one Of Queen Elizabeth
favoriteS, yet he was imprisoned in the
Tower for II years and then Deheaded.
The Earl Of Essex, another favorite
and much closer to the Queen than
Raleigh, was also beheaded. Heads
were not very securely anchored in
those days. especially in London and
at the court. Coke, who prosecuted
Raleigh, called him spider of hell, "
"a viper" and "a monster" He was
evidently not much liked in some quar-
tiers, yet he was handsome and enc Of
the most fashionably dressed men 10
London, with his white brocaded
doublets, silver-braided black velvet
Spanish capes and huge pearl earrings.
Raleigh, like Essex, attempted to sub
due the Irish, but failed. He intro
duced tobacco into England, but the
popular luxury was named after all
other man. the Frenchman Nicot. He
took some colonists to Virginia and de-
serted them there Ironically, he was
functionary at the execution of Es-
sex and fell heir to some OF the con-
fiscated lands OF Darlington, fellow
conspirator Of Mary, Queen Of Scots.
His own turn at the block came not
long after.
Ages ago, about 300 B. c., Epicurus