BOOK OF THE WEEK

Taranaki Daily News, 3 August 1935, Page 1 (Supplement)

BOOK OF THE WEEK

OLD WINE IN NEW BOTTLE

(By

U.S.)

“Young Renny,” by M. De La Roche. (MacMillan and Co., London). A. J. Fyfe Ltd., New Plymouth.

Those who know Miss De La Roche s “Whiteoak” stories will find “Young Renny” just as fascinating as its predecessors in the “Whiteoak family saga she has rendered with such fidelity. The reader is asked to observe the wine of life mature in a new bottle. To see the effect of clan and patrician blood in the freedom of colonial life in Canada, and to observe that with few social conventions to strengthen them, the inhibitions, the intolerance and the reck-, lessness of class, race and blood announce themselves naked and unashamed in the life of Renny Whiteoak, grandson of the indomitable Adeline Whiteoak, wife of the founder of Jalna, Captain Phillip Whiteoak. Threescore years had elapsed since her wedding, and her husband had been dead for many years when Adeline realised that “young. Renny,” ner favourite grandson, was no longer a schoolboy. It was a joy to the old lady that at eighty years of age, and although the ownership of Jalna had passed to her son Phillip, Renny’s father, she could still impress her will upon her grown-up family. They feared her biting sarcasm and the sting of her Irish wit. Besides which, if Grannie had no sentiment, she had much wisdom and long experience in the ways of men and women. She had the gift of obtaining deference and obedience without appearing to seek them, and she saw to .her delight that seme of her traits,, of quick temper, reckless courage and charm of manner had been transmitted to her favourite grandson. The advent of Malahide Court, an Irish cousin, on an indefinite visit to Jalna was to show his grandmother that Renny had inherited some of the implacability that had marked her own career, and, as may be imagined, she thought none the less of him for that characteristic. When the story opens Renny had been “sent down” from college for striking a master. He was 19 years old and was taking to estate management like a duck to water. His sister Meg was to be married almost immediately to Maurice Vaughan, son of the only neighbour old Mrs. Whiteoak considered was patrician enough to be allied in marriage with her own clan. Meg Whiteoak’s romance was, however, interrupted by her fiance’s en.tanglement with a village girl, who leaves her child on the doorstep of Maurice’s home, and Meg overhears, a gossip telling her father the facts about Maurice and the child in the crudest fashion.

Meg breaks off her engagement, but before the child was born Maurice had confided in Renny, who had undertaken to see the girl and her aunt. He found the girl, Elvira, quite uninteresting, but her aunt, Lulu, exercised an uncanny influence upon the young fellow who up to that time had been free of sex experiences. He follows Lulu when she and her niece left the district, and left Elvira’s baby to do so much mischief, and finds the fascination Of this 'woman, twice his own age and of no outstanding beauty, is something he is unable to resist. She shares his passion, and he returns .to Jalna where circumstances make it necessary he should tell his father 'of what has occurred.. Phillip was philosophical over the occurrence. “It seemed quite unnecessary. But—so much of life is unnecessary! You’ll find that out you grow older,” he told Renny. But in the meantime “Granny”, had sensed there was something unusual about Renny’s journey. She sent Malahide Court, between whom and Renny there had been instinctive mutual dislike to find out what had happened. He did so and the old woman determined tc tell her scandal to ’ the family, to explode it like a bomb that would shatter Phillip’s self-satisfaction, and show Renny that his grandmother was still a force to be reckoned with, and a person from whom it was unwise to keep secrets. Phillip’s knowledge of the occurrence spoiled the old woman’s plan. “Adeline’s face quivered with humiliation. She had prepared a fine scene between herself and Phillip. She had prepared a flamboyant part for herself to enact before her family. She felt, for the moment, defeated, cheated, deprived cf her prestige. The sight of Renny grinning at her revived her. She leant towards him, supporting her hands on her stick. ‘So’ she said in a rasping voice, ‘you saved your face, you young whelp, by confessing to your easygoing, spineless father’?” His mother’s fury and bitterness aroused Phillip to demand of Renny that he break off his association with Maurice, and it left Renny with more hatred than ever for Malahide as the spy who had given his secret away. Because of this incident and others the family at Jalna became divided. On one side was Adeline, determined that her cousin should stay with her as long as he felt inclined, and on the other the younger people who determined to make the visitor’s life a burden to him. The Irishman is able to do more mischief, however, by interfering with Renny’s betrothal to Vera Lacey, a visitor from England who had been staying with her grandfather, Admiral Lacey. An insinuation or two from Malahide, and the youthfulness of the girl and her sweetheart, roused the Admiral to forbid the engagement, and his decision was backed by Vera’s recall to England owing to her father’s illness. In regard to Renny and Vera’s engagement Malahide traded too much upon his cousin’s liking for him and desire’ to have her own way. She stands by Renny when he is accused of stealing one of her rings to give it to Vera and she sees that with Malahide hatred for Renny has gone beyond the spice of malice the old woman could enjoy vith him, and has become a vengeful desire to do hurt to her grandson. That is the end of Malahide’s influence. He returns to Ireland and Renny to college, if not at peace with the world, at least reconciled with his grandmother. The book closes with Adeline still the dominant figure at Jalna and in her family, and full of determination to retain that position for many years longer. It is a frame of mind the reader will support, for the resolute old woman is always entertaining, and so are the members of the family of which she is so proud and to whom she is so intolerant and yet loyal and kindhearted.

“General Evangeline Booth,” by P. Whitwell Nilson, “What I owe to Christ,” by C. F. Andrews, “The Path of Prayer,” by Samuel Chadwick, “Lay Sermons and Parables,” by Hugh Redwood, “Asking God,” by J. O. F. Murray, “Lies” and “The Wicket Gate,” by Studdert Kennedy, “Mary Slesser, The White Queen,” by W.. P. Livingstone. All at Is 3d each, postage 3d. A. J. Fyfe, Ltd., “The Book People,” New Plymouth.