Evening star., 1935-08-07
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
Margaret Cermond.
nLYRIAN SPRING. BY Ann Bridge.
Boston: Little, Brown & Co.

Bridge is something more than a pleas
ure. It is an experience, fraught with
that particularly delightful serenity Of
spirit that is born of full acquiescence of
the senses to the spell of beauty. Speed
and din, twin enemies against man in
the days battle for survival fade from
memory in the cloisters and the villages
and on the hills and the mountain
heights of the Sun-bleached Coast Lands
along the eastern shore Of the Adriatic.
Torcello and Venice, scenes of the
budding Of a second Spring for the run
| away wife Of a famous English econ
omist, become more poignantly enchant-
| ing in these pages than from any other
| descriptions save those of dAnnunZio.
| Spalato and the famous walls Of Dio-
cletian that inclose the city, Trau, Clissa,
| RaguSa, Cruz, Ombla, Komolac, long
walks up mountain slopes and sails on
| the fascinating rivers infiltrate into the
| consciousness a sense of being there, Of
participating in a leisurely inspiring ex-
ploration Of picturesque Dalmatia, Of
storing up beauty against the inevitable
return to daily routine and turmoil.
Amid these exquisite word pictures Of
| ancient architecture. quaint customs and
| natures own respondent handiwork is
woven the story of an Illyrian Spring
that budded and flowered for a woman
who would not have sought in this wise
to solve the complex problems Of her
life, but to whom the experience brought
enlightenment in full and lasting meas
| ure.
Lady Grace Kilmichael runs away
| from her husband and her children, not
because she does not love them, but be-
cause she loves them too much. She
knows that she has been a good wife
and a good mother, but gradually the
substantial affectionate relationships
have slipped into the background. She
| is painter of considerable renown and
| her pictures are acclaimed by critics in
Europe and America as well as in Lon
| don. Her husband and her three chill
dren, however, are too much engroSSed
in their own affairs to take her work
seriously and their incessant teasing has
hurt unbearably.
1t is characteristic of English husbands
that they permit their wives no share
in the interests which occupy them out
side of the home. 1t is also character
istic Of an Englishman to make an
awkward business Of atoning for the
heartaches that his thoughtlesSness may
| inf1ict upon his wife. A Frenchman will
apologize. beg forgiveness and pay
| homage until he is restored in good
grace. An American will not apologize
if he can possibly contrive by an over
| display of tender attentions to avoid it.
! But an Englishman neither apologies
nor surrenders to an impulse of affec-
| ton. He buys his wife fine present.
Il T@rk@ =
after so many years of catering to the
tastes and disposition of husband, run
ming a house and rearing children. 1t
would be rather odd if she did not lose
a good part Of the lively charm of her
| young womanhood. But husbands are
| not good at remembering that they are
responsible for the change. At thirty
| eight Lady Kilmichael is beautiful, gift
ed, attractive and far from stupid, but
| to her husband and her children she is
| dull and uninteresting. More and more
she is being left out of their lives. So
| she runs away, to be free to think about
| her shortcomings and to learn how to
overcome them.
Her departure from London causes no
stir in her family and they make no
particular effort to find her In round
about way they hear that she Is bound
| for Greece. but In reality her journey
| ends in nlyria, a paradise for painters,
q garden fashioned by nature for ro-
nance.
At Torcello a yellow-headed young
man with camera asks Lady Kill
michael to move her easel so that he
may take q picture. She obliges him and
excuses his bad manners when she dis
covers that he possesses a most unhappy
face. On the ship from Venice to the
Dalmatian coast he appears again and
they become friends. Together they
make the acquaintance of an Austrian
philosopher, and eventually all three
find themselves together in Komolac,
where they share experiences that
draw them into a relationship of de-
votion, the outcome of which only the
philosopher possesses the wisdom to
foresee.
Nicholas Humphries is only twenty
two, and the cause of his discomfort and
unhappinSss is the determination Of his
parents to make an architect Of him
when he wants to be an artist. The
mother in Lady Kilmichael responds to
his need for help and comfort, and she
discovers that through him she may
reach better understanding of the at
titude of her own children toward the
older generation.
On condition that the young man
write his mother of his adventure, Lady
Kilmichael lends him her equipment
and advises him to try himself at paint
ing as pastime. Under her guidance
he accomplishes some remarkably good
work. and the companionship deepens
into bond of sincere affection. But it
Is evident all too soon that the young
man is falling in love. This is some
thing that she must not allow to happen.
They must separate before he realizes
that he loves her.
Experience should have taught humans
centuries ago that love flowers more
often than dies under the stress of sep
aration, but that knowledge has not yet
borne in its wisdom upon the minds Of
the parent generation. And what of
herself? Is it possible that a woman
Of her age can fall in love with young
man not very much older than her own
children? BY all of the rules and con-
ventions that govern an Englishwoman
1t cannot happen. 1t does happen never.
theleSS.
And through this Illyrian Spring she
learns that freedom is not a thing to
be gained by attempting to alter the cir
cumstances of life, but by understanding
and accepting ones own limitations and
ability to meet the conditions Of life as
they exist.