"CORRUPTION"—BY PERCY WHITE.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9361, 10 March 1896, Page 2

"CORRUPTION"—BY PERCY WHITE.

;—. ♦ Mr White is a capable novelist. The first duty of the novelist is to be amusing, and " Corruption " is not only; amusing, St is brilliant; there is not a dull page from first to last. But a novelist worthy of the name must do more than amuse ; he must preach. Consciously or unconsciously he must set forth his view of the world or some part of the world; he must let us know candidly and honestly how he, with such experience ; • and insight as he may be gifted with, looks .; upon life, and incidentally how he reads those I various riddles which life, like the fabled. Sphinx, puts to each of us to answer, upon f, pain of death,death moral.spiritual.orphyei- i cal. And Mr White has his message to deliver. |: He exhibits in the form of a pitiful and j' terrible story, the progress of a moral taint, from a single transgression to complete ruin. ( The story is very simple. The Squire's son J has seduced the Rector's daughter. Paul and Beatrice grew up to love one another; j in Paul's case it .was the passion of his life. Terence Mulvaney had not then ■ j reminded them that 'for all we take we: j have to pay,' and they took without thought i

'of payment. A year afterwards Beatrio* J marries, and Paul makes a position in tin i House. An opportune speech places office j perhaps with a seat in the Cabinet, within ' I his reach. But his acquaintance with : Beatrice lias been maintained, and phe I chooses this moment to recall, him to hei j arms. There i.s something magnificent amf tragic about this woman, and you feel that in spite of the error into which her lovei betrayed her in hor youth, she is yet worth of better things. But the speck has rotted : inwards, and her moral vision is distorted. She rejects the one chance that offers oi ; straightening her life. Paul begs her to fly with him. j ' I would sooner,' she said, ' never see yon i again than let you ruin your career for mc. : No woman in the world is worth that, Paxil • j can't you understand that I want you and ! your crown too.' j ' But if I wished it ? If it were my dearest • 1 hope ?' I ' Nothing, , she replied, ' will ever induce " B mo to consent.' ■ Then Carew looked round at the breezy 8 expanse of sea and sky to gather courage 8 from the sense of immensity in which man B has no part. B 'The other alternative,' he said,'is that h we never meet again like this after to-day.' g But she shaped the future in her swift S brain before she answered' B 'But isn't there a middle course, Paul! ■ Don't shake your head. There must be. i. j Can't we be friends ?' ;*M She prevails, knowing the vrhdle that hia £ effort to escape has no real pith in it. I Paul marries for money and remains I Beatrice's lover. I The intrigue runs out its inevitable course I with the sordid escapes a Zα Parnelt, the •■ black-mailing servant, the growing careless- • S ness of the wrong-doers, discovery, and tin fl husband's suit for divorce. Beatrice telegraphs for Paul and he takes her abroad, but his wife will not divorce him, he is not happy, and he fails to atone to Beatrice foi her terrible position. She pays dearly ! enough now. A quarrel decides her course: she sends Paul back to his wife and his career, and herself makes the final plunge - - into what she once called 'the Gehenna ;j that awaits wicked women' —she becomes •■', the mistress of an unsavoury Russian Prince. It all seems inevitable., and infinitely sod, - "'". As a corrective to the light views of chastity >; which are being in9idiou3ly instilled by such. f r ';> books as Hardy's Tess and dv Maiirier'e l ';■£ Trilby, we think Corruption is a most- I. valuable work. The unthinking may find !<■ it improper and risqub; but the painfttstory is delicately told and its moral ii /-v,. undeniable. 'Love' says Beatrice with de-j/.V-j Maurier ' Love is as "natural as air aud *_; "v light! . To which Paul replies with the ;;? wisdom of the centuries, ' In nature, yes, but not in our artificial society, unle» p-13 legalised with a formula. We muet pay,' ?\J