A CHAT ON BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2722, 16 May 1906, Page 65

A CHAT ON BOOKS.

|'• THE GAMBLER " : by Katherine I Ckcil Thurston*. j ] We have had our chats about rather serious books of late ; to-day it is a novel of light and easy reading that 1 have chosen for you — the\latest work Oy the author ot "The Circle" and "John Chilcote. M.P." You will remember that j both these books had a very good reception both in England and America : con- , sequently this one, too, will probably be read by a large public. i It is a tale of life in modern English society, a tale of which the main features are probably being realised at this moment by a hundred human beings. In this, as in "The House of Mirth,' by Edith Wharton, the principal character j of the book finds herself compelled to j borrow money to pay her gambling debts ; and in .ach case the circumstances of the ' loan lead up to the most diamatic situation of the story. j Clodagh, the heroine of the book, is a lovable, impulsive Irish girl, who, mother- > 3ess from her childhood, and with a wornout gambler for a father, has come to the age of 18 absolutely without any ''bring- ' • ing up.'' She has one sister, Xance. some ' five years younger than her&elf, and this ' ! <<hi afterwards depicts Clodagh's early i life. 1 '"Our home in Ireland is a big lonely • house on the eea const. Imagine growing I up in m«house like that, without care or i money or friends — for father drove all his ' friends away. Imagine Clo's life ! Her , only learning was what she got with our ; cousin from the schoolmaster of the ' nearest village ; her only amusements were j sailing and riding and fishing. She never had the love or friendship of a woman of her iwn class ; she never knew what it was to be without the dread of debt or disgrace ; and then, at 18, married the first man who came into her life — not uscause she liked him ; not because she . wanted to mnrry, or knew what marrying I was, — but because he had saved our i father's honour by paying hie debt !T!! T! For, when Ciodagh is 18, her father summons to his deathbed the one man in. | the world whom he dare ask tt do him , the turn of a friend ; all the others, through his own fault, have deserted him, and James Milbanke, whom he has seen but j once since they were young men, is, in : ! his dire need, the sole being whom he can • ask to stand as protection between his two daughters and the world. His friend dees not fail him ; dry, precise, matter- I of-fact bachelor of over 50 as he is, he ' yet gives his promise to the dying man to ■ fdopt the two girls. So Denis Asshlin I , closes in peace the life that he had turned | , to so little account, and James Milbanke ' takes upon himself the responsibilities that his friend has left behind. He is a fairly wealthy man, and paying Asshlin's debts is for him an easy matter ; but the care | of his friend's children is more seiious. j He has felt greatly drawn towards Clo- ' dagh, the girl of 18, who is so curiously like her father in her impulsive, warmheartedness and her rigid notions of honour ; but the idea of marrying her has | not crossed his mind until it is suggested to him by the faithful old servant, Hannah. Then he asks Clodagh tc marry him, and the girl, who has just learnt that Milbanke is paying all her father's debts, considers, in utter ignorance of what she" . is doing, that she is in honour bound to ! grant the request of this 'man to whom her i family is under such deep obligation. ! She is only a child 1 still, and ignorant of , , life; and for the first tbjee or four years > .of her marriage she remains so. She has j but passed from the isolation of her life j • in Ireland to the almost equal retirement ' of life in an Italian villa near Florence, j , She and her husband live in great seclu- i ! Sion, and he, at least, is quite content to j , have leisure to pursue the archaeological , studies that absorb him. But Clodagh's youth is crying aloud for something more living than all this ; and, when hex. husband has to nay a business

visit to Venice, she accompanies him, and for the first time in her life learns what is meant by "the- world." She is thrown into the midst of a little colony of English visitors of rank ; pleasure-seekers, moet of them, and little more. Four of them, however, are to have an important influence on her future life — Lady Frances Hope Lord Deerehurst and his nephew Valentine Serracauld, and Sir Walter Gore. It is Lady Frances Hope who initiates Clodagh into the ways of her world and plays the part of" would-be friend to the young wife. At heart she is really jealous of Clodagh, and tries very soon after their becoming acquainted to poison Sir Walter "Gore's mind against her ; but, in spite of this, it is Gore's far-seeing kindness that saves Clodagh from really imminent peril by pointing out to her that she was made for better things than to lead such a life as Lady Frances Hope. His appeal to the highest in Clodagh has its effect. She turns from the fictitious excitement of roulette and bridge for high stakes, and the still more dangerous excitement of admiration from such finished worldlings 1 as Lord Deerehurst and V alentine Serracauld ; and next morning she leaves Venice to return to her qniet life at Florence.

Two years later, her husband dies, and Clodagh is left a fairly wealthy widow, just 26 years of age. She is still 'influenced by. Gore's ideas, though she has not seen him since that night on, the Grand .Canal ; and she is full of innocent happiness over the life that, she and Nance are to ha^e together, when Lady Frances Hope crosses her path again. By a little ingenious lying to represent Walter Gore in a wrong light, and a little specious reasoning to prevent Clodagh "spoiling her life and throwing away her pleasure because of one moral lecture," she succeeds not only in breaking down the girl's faith in Walter Gore's goodness, but also in persuading her -to accompany her to the Riviera to have a^ "gay time," instead of rejoining little Nance in England.

Hard and careless, now that she thinks that this man, whom she believed the soul of chivalry and honour, should have talked lightly of her to Lady Frances Hope, Clodagh throws herself with feverish excitement into the gaiety of the Riviera, and spends ,jjjjght after night at the gaming tables.^pWhere she loses so much money that when they return to London she owes Lady Frances £800, the greater part of her half-yearly allowance; She has already taken an expensive flat in London, and she begins living in the style of people who have six times her income. . Difficulties thicken round her, and imperative bills begin to press in ; these and her debt to Lady Frances amount to far more than she has money to pay, and when the latter asks to be # paid, Clodagh, in one desperate moment, appropriates the £1000 which Milbanke had left in her keeping for Nance, " to be paid to her on her twentyfirst birthday, or when she becomes engaged." Clodagh thinks that the day when she will have to hand the money over to Nance is so far off that by that time her affairs will be straightened, and she will be able to pay her sister without letting her know what had become of her money. But, quite unexpectedly, Nance returns from a long visit to a school friend in America, -engaged to that friend's brother. They are to be married quite shortly, and the girl is anxious to have a tiousseau worthy of the eminent position she is to occupy ; so she asks Clodagh if she may have the money. Clodagh pormises it, not daring to risk the loss of Nance's adowng love and trust towards her by confessing how she stands. The elder sister is driven, in an ill-advised moment, to confess to Lord Deerehmst in what urgent need 6he stands of £1000, and in five minutes his cheque for the sum is in her hands. She does not realise that in accepting this loan from him she has compromised the relationship between them and given him a hold over her in the obligation under which she stands to him. Deerehurst is too tactful to suggest it by look or sign ; but the bond is there.

Then Walter Gore comes again into Clodagh's life ; the misunderstandings between them are cleared up, and they realise that their lives are destined to be united. Clodagh's inheritance of happiness comes to her then — delayed, but the more beautiful for the waiting. There is Only one cloud in it : Gore dislikes Deerehurst, and asks that the friendship between him and .Clodagh shall cease. She promises, but doe 6 not tell Gore of the obligation she is under. That omission leads to distressing consequences ; for she is foolish enough to go to Deerehursfs

house at night to make a final business arrangement with him about the money. Gore hears of this visit from an outsider, and at once sends word to Clodagh in Ireland that, since she has abused his trust in her, their engagement must be at an end. The letter very nearly becomes Clodagh's death-blow ; and it is only the power of Nance's love that saves both her sister and Walter from the awful consequences. It is she who unites them again, at the moment when they seemed hopelessly severed, and she who effectually settles the affair with Lord Deerehurst for Clodagh. The study of this " little sister" is one of the most illuminating and tender things in the book. Clodagh is brilliant and fascinating, warm-hearted and impulsive, trusting and" charming and not very ■worldly-wise. And Nance is at the same time her guardian angel and her devoted admirer — dear, good, unselfish, loving little soul I

There is one shadow over the ending of the book — an almost unnecessaiy piece of gloomy tragedy. It is partly through Clodagh, too, that it is brought about, and the reminder of it, is likely to go with her all her days, It is the suicide of the poor boy with whonT^sne had gambled to drown thought on that wild night when she thought Walter Gore lost to her. The boy had left the table owing Clodagh all that he and his mother Uadj to. live on for three months — and in>

the morning his boat was found without him. Clodagh. in the feverish excitement of the blow she had received, ha<T no • thought of what she did that night ; but its ■ fearful consequences would surely kill for ever that fatal inherited passion of me gambler. ,