A CHAI ON BOOKS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2505, 26 March 1902, Page 61

A CHAI ON BOOKS.

" The Benefactress," by the author of "Elizabeth's German Garden"' and "A Sinner," is perhaps as pleasant a book as one need desire tor discussion among the recent novels One cannot praise the of writing, for style there is none ; and the opening chapters are almost ludicrous in their simplicity of diction. As to the English, that is faulty: and for the pljt. it is wildly improbable/ Yet out of all these manifest faults emerges a r«.m?rkably pleasant book, just as from a peifcct maze of wilfulness. and shortcomings may shine the very characters we love be«t — *o dear because so human ! Anna Estcourt. the heiome. and thereafter by happy change of circumstance to be " the benefactress,' 1 is a charming gir! — ye?, downright charming ; as tail, gracious, and pretty to look upon as she was ;weet and blight to know and — love. Yet that was ju«L the trouble : anyone might love Anna; so many people had alieady done so, and now Anna was 25. and had •till neglected to "settle herself." " Certainly she ought to have been enjoying herself. Instead, she wasted her time in that foolish ponder. ng over the puzzles of f-xistence ; over those unanswerable whj s and wherefores which, -is- a nilc. aie lestricted. among women, to the elderly and plain." The reason was simple enough. The Estcomts were poor, a material drawback which Sir Petei, Anna's only brothel, had lemedied by marrying a neb woman. Xow Lady Estcourt h'-td really been a veiy good pister-in-hiw to Anna ; she had spent a great deal of her money, which was the most precious thing she had, m educating Anna and rendering her the accomplished woman she was. Then she spent equally generously in diessing her; and, lastly, spent infinite time and trouble in choosing husbands for her. which Anna as persistently ignored. Unfortunately Susie was fo impossible.' Common she was; common she always would be. Moreover, she was so frank, and this frankness of rpeech was principally exercised on one topic : the inestimable benefit her money had been, and always would be, to the E-stcourt family and estate*. Out of this topic easily grew another : the ingratitude of Anna in not having mairied, and the positive expenditure and worry her failing to establish herself was to Susie. Romut nnes Anna was worked un to the point of wishing she were even a ctossins? sweeper, so she "might li\e her own life unmolested ; for her present life, Peter's selfish absorbtion in his books and fishing away down at Estcouit, Susie's feverish pursuit of a smart society which snubbed and was rude to her — all seemed so empty and vain. "... they all lived blindly on, each day a day of emptiness, each of those precious days so crowded with opportunities, possibilities, and unheeded blessings ; ami presently life would be behind them, and all their cha-nces gone for ever! '"The woild is a dieadful place, full of unhappy people,' she thought Each one by himself, with no one to comfort him. Each one with more than he can bear, and no one to help him Oh ! if I coujd I •would help and comfort every one w ho is sad or <ick at heait — oh! if 1 could. Xow it was about this time that Unc'e Joachim came to visit t lie Kstcourts Anna's mother had been his only sister, and to L'ncle Joachim, with hi.s German ideas of a woman's one sphere in life : that of the busy and capable " hausfrau," Anna's state of dependence on her brother's wife seemed altogether wrong. The simple old ■man did not stay long. A letter from his farm inspector touching the welfare of Ins much-prized pigs hurried him home. Agitation wrecked his slender stock of i.nglish. "My swines are ill," he hurriedly explained to Susie. "My inspector writes that they perpetually die. " So, with a tender embrace and a " God keep thee, Anna," be Innried to his cab; and so out of their lives. Soon comes ihe news of his death, and with it tbe wonderful event which changes all Anna's life. Uncle Joachim has left her a small estate near Strahund, which brings in an income of about £2000 a year ! Imagine it ! Each one of us, toilers for ourselves, with never a margin in our haidly-eained necessities to embroider with pleasures or decorous idleness, contenting ourselves with a dignified dependence on the toil 1 of ofliers — imagine, 1 say, the moment in which we found ourselves absolute possessors of an independence of £2000 a year ! Anna decides that she will not only go to visit her estate- — she will live there — partly from a feeling of lojalty to that dear Uncle Joachim who has made her so happy, partly because, in seme vague ia«!non s,he connects a new life — that better life which Uncle Joachim said was always one oi " .simplicity, frugality and hnJ w oik " — w ith an actual residence in this unknown coiner of the woild. fSu-ie. accompanied by her maid. her schoolgirl daughter Letty, and Miss Leech, the governess, goes with Anna to Stialsund, and on to that wonderful estate whose homestead, leached down a long vista of pine and beech woods, js. thus dp-cubed- "A low. white, two-stcneyed house, sppaiated fiom the foie^t only by a circular grass plot and a ditch with halfmelted snow in it and muddy watei ; a house apparently quite by it«elt among the creaking pines, neither old nor new. with a great many windows and a brown-tiled roof. ' They were tired wheu they eot there, for the lumbering carnage had lurched and lounged over miles of primitive mad*, and as they neared home and pas«ed through the village Anna had been received and welcomed, addie^sed and piestnted by tenants, pastors, and school childien, till she was fairly worn out. It is not difficult to imagine the impression the gracious and 'beautiful English girl makes upon these simple country people. Even the good vic.u . summoned

rnis^/' " for ever afterwards, when he thought of angels on quiet Sunday evenings in his garden, clothed them as Anna was clothed that night, not even shrinking from the pretty bare shoulders and scantily-clothed arms, but facing them with a courage worthy of a man, however doubtfully it might become a parson.' It is to this good man. Herr Pastor Manske, that Anna conbdes the scheme by which she hopes to render her newfound happiness the centre of peace and comfort to a little world of lonely women. hhe determines to find 12 poor gentlewomen v, ith whom to shaie the home left to hei by the good Uncle Joachim, and, with the parson's aid, she draws up such an advertisement, oflenng " to share w ith them ail that she possesses of fortune and happiness."' The amazement and annoyance of the vicar's wife fit this crazy scheme is in admirable contrast to the rapture with which the good man himself entc-rs into Anna's plans, filip, " sitting on the edge of her chair, clad m her best dress, which was aKo her tightest,' saw nothing angelic in the -voting frauJein who, instead of offcrinE her the pla-je of honour on the sofa, 'puwled on it herself in a most undignified manner, calculated, too, to ruin hei clothe 5 . She. who bad not been pressed to partake twice of cob oi any di>li at table, and who had i-n^ni .i dull evening without lefro^luiiems of any kind, legarded her ]>osit>-> with disfavuui m.d her visit as a failure ' Meant-me the advertisement begins- to draw its fc-hts of applicants Alas! is it pos-ible that such hundreds of pom gentlewomen, all of good and even aristocratic bath, all of the most Christian character, all penniless and friendless, have been but aw airing Anna's advent- to be lendercd happy Having selected from .-mong the kp-phcants to her advertisement fo- a housekeeper a sensible and clderK hdy. «'H turns out to be the Princess Ludwig vnii l'enheim. Anna at last selects thiee distiessed gentlewomen from the va^r aimy v.ho, in' iemi' of Christian cheerfulness, have notified their willingness to share With her " ail that she possesses of fortune and happiness."' Meantime, however, Susie— who beat a hasty retreat to civf.i-ation almost as mioh a*> they arrived — writes suggesting that the least Anna can do in return for all the benefits she has received is to keep Letty and Miss Leech, as by this means Letty will be able to acquire conversational German. Anna is charmed, and arranges that Letty shall, accompanied by Miss Leech, receive tuition from the young curate. Herr Kiutze. This Klutze — '• a tall. i.jrron %outh, buttoned up tightly in a long coat of broadcloth, with a pal'id face and thick, upright, riaxen hair" — fell w ildly in love with Anna at their first meeting, "which was -^iv natural, seeing that he h?d not spoken to a woman under 40 for six months, pud w;i% lnnr-elf 20. and n poet." Kiutze, then, seizing the opportunity presented by Letty's lessons-, begins a long system of wooing "the gracious miss" by sending her flowers, and at last verges ; Letty— partly from sentimental sympathy, and partly fiom love of mischief — manufacturing the requisite and encouraging thanks and courtesies from " Aunt Anna." The only neighbour in whose companion- ' hip Anna herself can really find any pleasure is Axel Lohm, whose estate joins- heis, and whose thoroughly generous nature is at once attracted by the spectacle of this young girl, .'bout whom a cloud of parasite? alieady gathers. The three Chosen Ones, tho c c lonely women wuose grateful happiness is to render Anr>aj3 life an ideal one, move themselves failures — Hidicious, if they were not 'o imtating and so pitiful. One is absorbed by a scheme of mairying Anna to her odious jackanapes of a son : one is common, lazy, and untruthful ; and the other is narrow and soured, as ungrateful and cold as she is aristocraticAlas ! poor Anna. She is neither happy herself, nor can <he make these others happy. Then the wretched episode of Kiutze i caches its crisis, and Anna, overwhelmed w,t!i shame and dismay at the position Letty's folly has involved her in. ieceivt» yet anothei wound in a declaration from Axel Lohm of the love he can no longer conceal. What ' he: one fnend turned lover . To w hom can she now go foi strength or help"' Yet out of all this confusion and the failure of every hope of " the benefactress " ■piings — ah 1 kind fate — the happiness of Anna, the M\e=* personality who has e n deared herself to every reader. Klutzc, in a frenzy of jealousy and despair, sets fire to Axel Lohm's stabks. and allows Delwigg, Anna's fraudulent inspector, and Axel's bitter enemy, to fix the blame on Axel himself. It is then, as he lies in puson undtr this monstio-- charge, that Anna realises she loves- Axel, and never iests until in thflt baie cull she tells him Being innocent, pie«ently he must be free; but how? "Here- was, no room tor the archness- and coyness of oidm.uv lovemakmjr. All t: -it \vas not simple truth fell away fiom thtm like tawdiy ornament, for which there «•;;■* no use in that sad place. . . Soul to s-oul, clear-visioned. steadfast, as tho.-9 may be who ate quietly watching the approach of death. they looked into one anothei 's eyes. ; m d knew they were alone — he and she — i gainst the »voild "