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Page 81
It will be seen that Lieutenant Beehler made good use both of the means
of observation and of the leisure for study afforded by the "cruise." He
writes agreeably, and seems to have been careful in regard to the
sources from which he has gathered information. The book is beautifully
printed, and the illustrations are faithful but artistic renderings of
photographic views.
Recent Fiction.
"At the Red Glove."
New York: Harper & Brothers.
"Upon a Cast."
By Charlotte Dunning.
New York: Harper & Brothers.
"Down the Ravine."
By Charles Egbert Craddock.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
"By Shore and Sedge."
By Bret Harte.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
"At Love's Extremes."
By Maurice Thompson.
New York: Cassell & Co.
Although the scene of "At the Red Glove" is laid in Berne, it is a
typical French story of French people with French ideas and
characteristics, and it is French as well in the symmetry of its
arrangements and effects and its admirable technique. In point of fact,
Berne is a city where a German dialect is spoken, but among the lively
groups of _bourgeois_ who carry on this effective little drama a
prettier and politer language is in vogue. Madame Carouge, whose
personality is the pivot upon which the story revolves, is a native of
southern France, and is the proprietor of the H�tel Beauregard. Her
husband, who married her as a mere child and carried her away from a
life of poverty and neglect, has died before the opening of the story
and bequeathed all his property to his young and handsome wife. "Ah, but
I do not owe him much," the beautiful woman said: "he has wasted my
youth. I am eight-and-twenty, and I have not yet begun to live." Thus
Madame Carouge as a widow sets out to realize the dreams she has dreamed
in the dull apathetic days of her long bondage. Although she is bent on
love and happiness, she is yet sensible and discreet, and manages the
H�tel Beauregard with skill and tact, while secluding herself from
common eyes. Destiny, however, as if eager at last to work in her favor,
throws in her way a handsome young Swiss, Rudolf Engemann by name, a
bank-clerk, with whom she falls deeply in love. Everything is
progressing to Madame's content, when a little convent-girl, Marie
Peyrolles, comes to Berne to live with her old aunt, a glove-seller,
whose sign in the Spitalgasse gives the name to the story. It would be a
difficult matter to find a prettier piece of comedy than that which
ensues upon Marie's advent. It is all simple, spontaneous, and, on the
part of the actors, entirely serious, yet the effect is delightfully
humorous. Berne, with its quaint arcaded streets, its Alpine views, and
its suburban resorts, makes a capital background, and gives the group
free play to meet with all sorts of picturesque opportunities. The story
is told without any straining after climaxes, but with many felicitous
touches that enhance the effect of every picture and incident. In scene,
characters, and plot, "At the Red Glove" offers a brilliant opportunity
to the dramatist, and one is tempted to think that the story must have
been originally conceived and planned with reference to the stage.
"Upon a Cast" is also a very amusing little story, and turns on the
experiences of a couple of ladies who, with a longing for a quiet life,
The world forgetting, by the world forgot,
settle on the North River in a town which, though called Newbroek, might
easily be identified as Poughkeepsie. Little counting upon this niche
outside the world becoming a centre of interest or a theatre of events,
the necessity of presenting their credentials to the social magnates of
the place does not occur to these ladies,--one the widow of a Prussian
officer, and the other her niece, who have returned to America after a
long residence abroad. They prefer to remain, as it were, incognito;
and, pried; into as the seclusion of the new-comers is by all the
curious, this reticence soon causes misconstructions and scandals. The
petty gossip, the solemnities of self-importance, and the Phariseeism of
a country neighborhood are very well portrayed, and, we fear, without
any especial exaggeration. The story is told with unflagging spirit, and
shows quick perceptions and a lively feeling for situations. Carol
Lester's friendship for Oliver Floyd while she is ignorant of the
existence of his wife is a flaw in the pleasantness; but "Upon a Cast"
is well worthy of a high place in the list of summer novels.
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