Rebecca Harding Davis has been rarely successful in presenting types of middle-aged women and centering the interest of a story around them. They never figure as mere foils to accentuate the charms of a younger woman, neither are they lay figures who... Read more

Rebecca Harding Davis has been rarely successful in presenting types of middle-aged women and centering the interest of a story around them. They never figure as mere foils to accentuate the charms of a younger woman, neither are they lay figures who have learned the chaperon's lesson. They also serve who only stand and wait, but they are live, interesting women, and this Frances Waldeaux, whose fortunes many readers of yesteryear, followed when the story appeared as a serial in Harper's Bazaar, is a very real, human woman. She is a gentlewoman by birth, instinct, and education, who squanders her heart's love on a son, who, as a result of his mother's adoration, unfailing generosity, and unconscious spoiling, turns out a prig. He has no vices, but is intolerable in his conceit and obtuseness. The mother earns a large income by writing humorous articles for a comic periodical under a pseudonym—with which she supplies this son so generously that he concludes she is a wealthy woman—a deception which the mother fosters. Frances has retained the enthusiasm of her youth, and with the son, determines to make a trip to Europe. Then begins a series of disenchantments for the fond mother. On the steamer the son becomes infatuated with a woman of doubtful morals and ancestry. He marries her, and goes to live with her in France, where they live in Bohemian fashion. The birth of their child quite transforms the wife. The story increases in dramatic interest, and culminates in a quite unexpected episode. The efforts of the son to establish his self-respect and manhood, and incidentally an income, involve him in circumstances that are practical and sordid, but Fate is very kind to him in the end. It must be admitted that his attractive qualities do not impress the reader in any way as they do his loyal-hearted mother. The incidental adventures of a party of American girls traveling in the Continent with their chaperone and the business-like wooing of the heiress by a penniless German nobleman add to the brightness and vivacity of the novel. The story is very largely told in dialogue, as Mrs. Davis in no sense belongs to that class of story-tellers whose dramatis personae occupy pages in introspective analysis. Less