Evening star., 1937-01-09


look OF cast houses and thatch are as
important now as they ever were, as
inevitable and symbolic Of the life
around them. Rather it is that now
this section has become more than
itself; Sussex and Kent are now
counties on another map. part of the
tortuous geography of the heart.
PORTRAIT OF A LADY.
By Lady Eleanor Smith {.
Garden City: Doubleday,
DOran and Company.
Reviewed by
IRIS BARRY.
A YOUNG lady Of the 1860s fallen
u on evil days might not be sur
prised at finding herself pursued by
wealthy middle-aged nobleman. She
could not fail to be amazed to dis
cover after a while that his pursuit
of her sprang from the highest mo-
tives. This was contrary to story
book rules. And so, when he asked
her to be his wife. she was so as
founded that she accepted him. Thus
it fell out that Medora Venn. no better
than she should be, became Lady
Cheyn.
Medora had undergone many ad-
ventures before this came about, most
of them picturesque but less than
seemly. The expected thing would
have been, of course, for her to have
fallen abruptly from her new emf
nence.
Despite its romantic air and slap
dash, Portrait of Lady is a pene-
trating and somewhat surprising novel
it keeps much more nearly to life
than is usual in the sort of romantic
fiction to which it roughly belongs.
There are gypsies in it, and fair
ground people, and actors in third-rate
touring companies. This we should
expect, since Lady Eleanor has often
made such vivid shabby folks her
especial interest. In this new story,
however. they are drawn as knowingly
as usual but kept firmly in the back
ground. 1t is Lady Cheyn who fills
the pages. as glAwingly as she shines
in the great canvas by Winterhalter
that hangs in one Of Engiand's decay
ing mansions today. No one who reads
of her life-story here will doubt that
such portrait does exist, or that the
author has seen it and then drawn
partly on imagination, but not little
on facts about a real woman.
MEDORA VENN, who became Lady
Cheyn and disappointed society
by not proving unworthy of the honor,
is almost the exact opposite of Edith
Wharton's heroine, Lily Bart, in THE
House of Mirth." Miss Bart had what
are called all the advantages-position
in society, friends, some money, beauty,
youth and an unblemished reputation.
One by one she lost them all save per-
haps beauty; and lost them from sheer
sloppiness of character. She was a
lady, a hothouse fruit that is easily
bruised.
Medora. on the other hand, had no
advantages, no money, no friends, no
position and-after while-no repu-
tation either. Her youth and beauty
were, under such circumstances, hard
ly an asset: But she had one supreme
advantage in that she most definitely
was not a lady. Medora could meet
hard times, Medora could earn money,
Medora could stand humiliation
and cold and hunger and. later,
the bright unfriendliness Of So
ciety men and women. Her rafish
mother had toughened her, SO had her
dismal association with the actor,
Julian Ross. When she was pitch
forked into an enviable position, she
knew exactly the depth and stencil Of
the social regions below; she had no
particular fear of them, and she kept
her head. Above all, she knew what
was to be expected of a peers wife,
for none in England has a more exact,
exacting and instructive knowledge Of
what a titled lady should do than the
very poor and the very obscure.
MEDoRA undoubtedly revered the
AA position she 50 accidentally had
attained: no woman with dubious
morals should daxEen her doors. NO