A CHAT ON BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2308, 26 May 1898, Page 43

A CHAT ON BOOKS.

" The Grey Lady," by Saton Memrnat), is not a very new book, and yet Js so much better than many of the new books I have lately had thac I think we will choose it as one of our topic? to-day. I will nofc ssy that I think " The Grey Lady " equal to some cf Merriaian'g works, %s, for example, " Tfl«i Sowers " or "Flotsam " — that masterly study of a scapegrace— yet it makes capital reading, and exhibits all the author's most attractive qualities. The plot is mere complicated than is usual in Menjraan'3 books, and the interest ia very equally divided between " fche grey lady harsoK and some half-dozen other well-drawn and extremely interesting characters. Briefly told, the story runs something in this fashion.

Two boys, twin brothers, Luke and Henry Fitz Henry, are orphans in whom the Koc. Mrs Harrington, otherwise " the grey lady," is interested. Both boys are destined for the navy, and Henry passes the exams brilliantly, while Luke, who is really more clever, fails, and enters the merchant service instead. This failure of Luke's is the cause of a complete rupture with Mrs Harrington, a cold, imperious, and most anbitious woman. The Hon. Mr Harrington himself has long been dead, and to those who knew the pair in his lifetime, and had reason to class them as a pair of pleasant and wellbred adventurers, it is somewhat puzzling to account for Mrs Harrington's comfortable, if not opulent, circumstances.

The other centre of interest, from which emanates indeed the most- attractive element in the story, is very far removed from the conventional London household of Mts Karrißghon, for it lies in the " Valley of Expose " in the little island of Minorca. Hare, at the Casa D'Erhara, lives Eve Ohalloner with her long-widowed father. Oasa D'Erhara is the family seat of Count Cipriani d 8 Llosefca, a Spanish nobleman of ancient lineage, who, however, has long been ,an absentee, preferring evidently to leave his Minorcan estate in the hands of his trusted English friend Challoner, to whom he had leased Casa D'Srhara under the quaint land tesure of tha bland.

It is at tha deathbed of her beloved father that we first meet Eve, a young and beautiful girl with all the grscs and dJgcity of a Spaniard, all the frankness of an English — boy, and the brighs fearlessness which springs from entire ignorance of the world. When her father dies Eve is hard pressed by de Lloseta to consider the Casa D'Erhara still her home. He tssss his courtliest and kindliest powers of persuasion. Wbat objection can she urge to occupying the lovely old home which otherwise will be abandoned to the care of servants 1 Eve, however, is obdurate, and is encouraged in her refusal by an uncle on her mother's side, a kind but homely old sailor, who has hurried over to Minorca on the news of Ohalloner's serious illness. Captain Bontcor is an extremely attractive old man by reason o£ his utter simplicity, his prideful humility, and his loyal family affection. Ha is, however, a singularly incongruous guardian for Eec Cballoner. There are no women to counsel the girl ; all her young Ufa she ha? been Burrounded by men. Now, in the time of her first great grief and utter loneliness^ it is men whose loyal friendship and silent sympathy cheer and sustain her. Henry FitzHenry is one — the youngest — of these men friends. Ha is a lieutenant oc board bet Majesty's Kittiwafee. Same mouths before, oa his arrival at Minoroa, he had brought letters of introduction from Mrs Harrington to Mr Challoner, and in virtu.B thereof, and hie own sterling merits as a floe, manly, and gentlemanly fellow, had been a frequent visitor at the Casa D'Erhara. He aporeciates, as no man can help doirjjz.

the charm and beauty of Eve Challoner, and is intensely interested in her future j grieved for her grief — but what can he do 1 So Eve says good-bye sadly enough to tha old free picturesque life, and departs with Captain Bontnor for London. Meanwhile about that other cwU'e of plot and interest, " the grey lady " herself, is being woven a web o£ worldly intrigue aud diplomacy which later on shall «ncot»pasß every character in the book within its meshas.

Mrs logham Baker, a silly, toadying old vromas, whose attempts at diplomacy are so Transparent as to be laughable, has, with her daughter Agatha, lived with Mrs Harrington *or yeara. Mrs Inebam Baker it tUe-pin-cafehion in which the injperkras grey lady sticks her pins of temper, disappointment, or thwarted ambition. Years ago Mrs Inghain Baker feared that tbe Fitz-Henry bdjs anight inherit Mre Harrington's wealth, thus destroying her hopes for Agatha's future. When Luke's failure to pass his Royal Navy exams caused the" breach bat ween himself and Mrs Harrington, Mrs Ingham Baker mentally decided that Agatha must marry Henry. As the years passed, however, and Luke rose rapidly in feis profession until he was second officer on the magnificent East Indian liner Croonah, several unlooked-for complications tended to upset the excellent woman's plans. Mis Harrington — who worships success — makes friendly overtures to Luke, which are accepted ; and Luke, meeting Agatha, falls passionately in love with her.

So far as a- selfish, cowardly, greedy woman can be said to love, Agatha returns Lcke'i* affection, t&ough even in the first moment of their mutual confession she tells him that nothing— nothing will induce her to marry a poor man I Yet she deliberately does all in her power to increase his passion for her, and commands her mother to make tbe voyage to India in the Cioonah, simply to gratify her vanity acd tha poor calculating sentiment she calls her love. " I can't be poor, Luke — I can't ! " It is she herself who writea her own fate sfl tbe Book of D^oia as shs whispers the words in tbe starlit silence.

Luke is a gloomy, pessimistic man, brooding, reserved, of iron will, and few but iatense emotions. The Kfe-long separation from bis twin brother, caused by the rupture witb Mrs Harrington, has robbed Luke FitzKeary ot somethiDg—some tondercess, aoms nobility which were his by right, but wbich have died and are forgotten, leaving in their atead a sullen antagonism to all the world, an iron will, and a datmtless courage.

He loves Agatha — neither God nor man shall prevent his winning hsr ; so that, when a certain unscrupulous scoundrel unfoMs to b\ca a hideous plan by which tLe wrecking of a ship may mean the making of a colossal fortune, Luke listens.

Fortune means Agatha. It is a terrible plan, and involves a hideous crime — a crime wbich would be trebly repugnant to such ?- man a& Luke, with bis pride and bis reputation. Y«t — raoutns after the fatal suggestion — Luke, cne of r,he finest sailors m the merchant service, deliberately wrecks the Croonah on her homeward voyage.

He dreams of fortune — colossal wealth — and Agatha. Hs awakes to find Agatha among the crowd of terrified women who fpea death on fche Croonah I

It is too mucb. Tha elaborate plans wbich he had made for the safety and preservation of the passenger*, the specious plane by wbich ha had dulled his conscience, and by the carrying out of which he was to redeem his own self-respect, are all forgotten at the sight of the woman he loves. His captain shouts to him in vain ; come death, come hell, for a fay? seconds be

gSwill held tho woman he loves in his arms. He leaps overboard with her, but a mass of wreckage kills her before his eyes, while he is saved — saved to face the ruin of his career, the loss of love, the wretched conviction of an unavailing crime.

It is only at the end of the book, when the grey lady herself ia dead, and Eve Challoner — married to Henry Filz-Henry — is living once more in the lovely home of her childhood in the Valby of Repose, that we are permitted to discover the secret of Mrs Harriogton's life-long influence and power over the Count da Iloseta and the source of that incoms which so puzzled her acquaintances.

It is a str&Bge story, and lloseta tells it to Eve and her husband in the gracious silence of the tropic night, a guest at his Own longdeserted Casa D'Erhara. It all happened long years ago, when de lloseta had not long been married to a beautiful girl whom he adored. She was in delicate health, expecting soon to be a mother. Under these circumstances both husband and wife naturally desired that tha constantly prolonged visit of the Hon. Mr and Mra Harrington should come to an end. They had come for days, and stayed for months. The Count at last declared his intention of courteously bidding them farewell. The young wife's Spasaish instincts of nospitf \ity were shocked, and she violently opposed such an idea.

Ia the heat of aigument a hasty movement causad her to stumble, and she crashed heavily down, striking her head on the marble floor. The shock to one in her delicate condition proved fatal. She died, and her husband, overwhelmed with grief at her loss, was confronted by a new misery. Mrs Harrington, attracted by the angry voices, had been a witness to the whole scene, and threatened Sc accuse the Count de lloseta of mau&i&Tsghtsr unless her silence was parchased by a handsome annuity. Da Iloseta did what many another innocent man has tlo&e — paid the price of guilt — sooner than allow tbe rairo of accusation to rest t>n the stainless honour of his family name. Thus ara the secrets of two Uvas solvad at once, and the curtain rings down on the happiness of Eve and her husband, the release of de Iloaeta from bis galling years of bondage, and' the somewhat; bitter irony of Luke's distinguished posSti&a as captain of a Chilian Eoan-o'-war.

That tbe fcrolr if. well written from st&ri 'O finish may well go without saying, but cbsre are certain Incidents, seen as a great cyclone through which the Crooiaah i* successfully driven, and the wrecking of the Eoble vessel by Luka's mad crime, whioh rise to the very perfection of Art. There is only one other 'description of a storm at sea ia all my reading to compare with this one, aad that is by Marcus Clarke in «• His Nairn al Life.'- 1