A CHAT ON BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2244, 4 March 1897, Page 43

A CHAT ON BOOKS.

"Sentimental Tommy," by Barrie, is a book which to many even of that author's warm admirers is a distinct disappointment. Tommy himself, queer little bundle of dramatic possibilities, always acting a part, and acting it with such fervour as to make it a reality — why, this Tommy is csrtainly one of Carrie's best obaraoier studies. And wfc*t

i a finished, yet powerful portrait is that ofe ; Jean Myles, Tommy's mother I Could any* - thing be more pathetic, more realistic, than 1 the tstory of her life as it is unfolded in the ' history of Tommy. lam not given to tears 1 , , I declare, bat the piotare of poor, faded, on* | lovely Jean writing home those long tissues . of falsehoods about her loving " man," with I his presents, his carriage drives, his doting 1 affection , while her flesh bore the marks of his blows and her soul was crashed with his villainies, filled my eyes with tears. Yet, despite all this, and more, I look upon •• Sentimental Tommy " as a disappointment* The humour, the pathos, and the realism arc all shadowed by the long-drawn-out, inaig. tent episode of the " Painted Lady." There are some authors of whom it is so delightful L to feel that yoa can without hesitation place them in the hands of the merest aohool girl. • I u&ed to feel this with Barrie, bat even he • has pandered to the modern taste for "a woman with a past " and stuck up this poor painted lady as a lure. Bat there is a book which I am convinced would give you as much pleasure to read as it has given me, and that is " Flotiam," by Seton-Merriman. You will remember at what length we chatted over his last book, " The Sowerß," and what a splendid story it was. Naturally one looked forward with keen anticipation to whatever should coma next from bis pen, and "Flotsam " in nowise;disappoints those anticipations. It is a fine . work in every sense, and worthy the author of " The Sowerß." Most people will, I think, allow the indescribable charm that somehow attaohes to all stories of Russian life to influence them, and the popular verdict will always be in favour of " The Sowers " over all Merriman'i books. Nevertheless you will find the touoh as masterly, the plot as good, and the literary charm as potent in " Floti sam." j The period chosen is some few years ante- . cedent to that ever-memorable date of the Indian Mutiny, and some of the events are bound up with the history of the mutiny itself. The hero, Harry Wylam, is left an orphan in India, his young parents being both carried off by a virulent outbreak of oholera. The child is taken under care of his ayah to the home of a certain Mr Philip Lamond, a man who is destined to be truly the evil genius of the child for whom he professes so deep an affection. The real relations between Oaptain Wylam and Lamond had been those of master and servant. Lamond, however, in. writing home the sad news to the captain's relatives, entirely ignoreß this trifling detail, and poses as "my poor friend Wylam's. most intimate friend." Being a man of some attainments, ar well as possessing an easy and gentlemanly addrens, there is nothing to betray him, and go3sip took * longer time to travel from India to England in those days. Moreover, there wan naturally nothing in. common between the military society in, whioh the friends of Oaptain and Mra Wylam moved and the business circles in whioh their, sole relative in London, John Grashamj a great city merchant, had hiit interests. Lamond, for some reason, in desperately anxious to retain little Harry Wylam under his own care in India. John Gresham, however, h<is as fully raa.de up bio mind that the child shall bo brought up as Dents ona who r?iii inherit a larsre fortune and is tho boarer d£ a fine old narcs", .■Amidst Enrich guviuiuidiagß. Harry is Bent home uad^r the cara o£ his ayah, ttncl Ii dneenbeu to us ai "jiinerfy, lieGdless child, with a browc t&a and brave j bine eyes, tho picture of good health, of happy j innocence and wilful during," 3o the child and his ayah are duly installed in the great: prim house in St. Helen's Place, and prove a somewhat disturbing element in the orderly j household. Mr Grosham is elderly and a widower. The only young creature in the' stately household is little Miriam Greshan?, a pretty, prim child about Harry's own age. "Mr Gresham in bis rigid old-world formality held very pronounced opinions on the bringing up of children. ... It was all rather incomprehensible to the boy who j had ruled the bungalow by the Hooghly, and had been allowed as a treat to sip brandj and soda from the tumbler of the indulgent! Philip Lamond." Eight years did Harry pass in the kindly but formal home in St. Helen's Place. His boyish turbulence, however, continually involved him in some fresh trouble, and at last it was decided to send the boy to the Merchant Tailors' School. The dignified hub kindly words in whioh good John Gresham conveyed bis decision to Harry might well serve as a model for our own generation of less dignified parents and gardlans. As the boy grows older, his childish faults, heedless impetuosity, volatile ' affection, unstable effort increase with his growth. Handsome, lovable, generous to a fault, and brave as a lion, with the reputation of a great fortune and the stamp of a good family, masters for* got to be very oritical— schoolmates saw only his virtues. Harry's school career was ft failure, Honest John Gresham puzzled in vain over the unsatisfactory problem, and sought the advice of his friends on 'Change. 11 Pat the lad into a red coat," said they. "So the commission was bought with the money so ably cared for and administered! by Mr Greaham," and "a fine figure of a, Boldier," said ho contentedly. "I really hope he has found his right pigeon-hole alt last." Meantime Miriam has grown into a sweefe and beautiful girl, a little prim and stiff, ! perkapg, but not too prim to love and admire Harry with all her faithful, pure heart. Afe 25 Harry comes into his fortune, and, having already asked permission to marry Miriam^ renews his impatient suit, only to ba told that he must wait two years. He must needs celerate his coming of age with a dinner worthy of himself and the occasion—but ie proves an ill-omened inauguration of hisf manhood. Before the dinner is over he is> involved in a quarrel, which ends in a duel ; and this duel, though he does not kill his" man, cuts short his own military career for the present. \ He is requested to resign from his regiment and on his colonel's advice changes into sV regiment leaving for India. Harry's parting with Miriam is a sad . one, bat with oharao teristio lightheartedness he is full of hope no less than of repentance. " And you do care for me ? You will wait 2*♦ he says. " . " I will wait all my life if need be," ihfl ' answered. ; Arrived »t Qulontta, tho first wiloomt, Harry receives \% from Ma fatuct's. "oftejV

friend," Philip Lamond; the first news he hears is that England has declared war with Kuisia. In India Harry finds his evil genius in Philip Lamond, and one who would fain be his good genius in Frederic Marqueray. Unfortunately, poor Harry, like every man of his pleaiure-loving, easy-going temperament, is his own greatest enemy, and we all know what must be the fate of the city when the enemy is within the gates ! The characters of Philip Lamond and of Frederic Marqaeray are two as finely-drawn portraits as Mr Merriman has ever given us, and are worthy of the band that has drawn Earl Steinmetz, and that has, in Harry Wylam, given us the finished portrait of a most lovable and most utter " failure." Fond of company, volatile, extraordinarily open tosurrounding influences, Harry soon becomes identified with a wild set, and the interests, affections, and love that are so faithful to him in far-away England are almost forgotten. During the Beige of Dalhi, Lamond contrives to entangle Harry in a looting Bchf.me which has all the appearance of a brilliant and successful sortie. Harry's fortune in by this time squandered ; he has almost mined himself with his mad passion for gambling, and be drinks much more • than in good fo? him. Not a very brilliant match for any woman surely, and yet handsome Maria Lamond is delighted to marry him, and her father finds in the marriage the fulfilment of all bis hopes and schemes. Poor Harry finds a Bad and oynical amusement in signing a marriage settlement which gives to Maria all property he bad, has, or may have. The marriage Is a most ill-starred one, and only puts a vary temporary brake on Harry's downward career. By a strange accident he meets the eminent Hindoo gentlemaji who bas administered his father's estates, and thus presently learns that he has for years been systematically robbed and plundered by Lamond ; that instead of being a ruined gambler he possesses ,a fortune almost equal to the one he 'has squandered. In signing that marriage settlement, however, he has given every permy — past, present, and to come — to the woman who married him for that and nothing else. Ab, well, it's a sad story— a sad and terrible scene in which Harry, beside himself with fury, accuses Lamond in the card room at the club. H» brands his father-in-law an a robber and a swindler, and Lamonde, cool and collected to the last, uses the looting episode as his tv quoque. ■ The part whioh Frederic Marqueray takes in all this web of folly and sorrow and sin it one of the finest conceptions in the book. The cloning chapters find Harry, a broken, rained mat . raking home his baby girl and her ayab, jemi as he himself had been taken home in his childhood, and pleading with Miriam — not in vain, be sure— to keep the child for him. This done, he drifts away to Bouth Africa, and here the end comes. - Bnt what became of his wife Maria 7 you Bay. She and her worthy father disappeared together on the night of the expo? 6 in the club. Bat it ie in South Africa, as I said, that the end comes, and poor Harry, who has been " Flotsam all his life, has reached the shore at last."