As for Petrina herself, who was in Boston more than of it, she isso admirably analyzed in the chapter devoted to the task that Iam tempted to instance it as the best piece of work in the book,though it does not make one hold one's breath like some of thedramatic episodes:"Whatever religious instinct had been in thefamily had spent itself at least two generations before her time.
She was a pagan--a tolerant, indifferent, slightly scornfulpagan.... But she was none the less a Puritan.Certain of herways of thought and habits of life, had survived the beliefswhich had given them birth, as an effect will often outlive itscause. If she was a pagan, she was a serious one, a pagan with aNew England conscience."This is mighty well said, and the like things that are said ofPetrina's sister-in-law, who has married an English title, aremighty well, too."She had inherited a countenance whoseexpression was like the light which lingers in the sky long aftersunset--the light of some ancestral fire gone out.If in herface there were prayers, they had been said by Pepperells andVassalls now sleeping in Massachusetts churchyards.If in hervoice there were tears, they had been shed by those who wouldweep no more.She mirrored the emotions she had never felt; andall that was left of joys and sorrows and spiritual aspirationswhich had once thrilled human hearts was in that plaintive echothey had given to this woman's tone, and the light of petitionthey had left burning in her eyes."No one who reads such passages can deny that the author of "LetNot Man Put Asunder" can think subtly as well as say clearly, andthe book abounds in proofs of his ability to portray human naturein its lighter aspects.Lady de Bohun, with her pathetic face,is a most amusing creature, with all her tragedy, and she is onthe whole the most perfectly characterized personality in thestory.The author gives you a real sense of her beauty, hergrace, her being always charmingly in a hurry and always late.
The greatest scene is hers: the scene in which she meets herdivorced husband with his second wife.One may suspect some ofthe other scenes, but one must accept that scene as one ofgenuine dramatic worth.Too much of the drama in the book istheatre rather than drama, and yet the author's gift isessentially dramatic.He knows how to tell a story on his stagethat holds you to the fall of the curtain, and makes you almostpatient of the muted violins and the limelight of the closingscene.Such things, you say, do not happen in Brookline, Mass.,whatever happens in London or in English country houses; and yetthe people have at one time or other convinced you of theirverity.Of the things that are not natural, you feel like sayingthat they are supernatural rather than unnatural, and you ownthat at its worst the book is worth while in a time when mostnovels are not worth while.
Footnotes"The Right of Way." A Novel.By Gilbert Parker. Harper & Brothers.
"The Ruling Passion. Tales of nature and human nature."By HenryVan Dyke. Charles Scribner's Sons.
"Spoils and Stratagems Stories of love and politics."By Wm.
Allen White. Charles Scribner's Sons.
"Foma Gordyeeff."By Maxim Gorky. Translated from the Russian byIsabel F. Hapgood. Charles Scribner's Sons.
"Circumstances."By S. Weir Mitchell, M.D. The Century Company.
"A Japanese Nightingale."By Onoto Watana. Harper & Brothers.
"The Marrow of Tradition."By Charles W. Chesnutt. Houghton,Mifflin & Co.
"Lay Down Your Arms. The autobiography of Martha von Tilling."By Bertha von Suttner. Authorized Translation. By T. Holmes.
Longmans, Green & Co.
"Let Not Man Put Asunder."By Basil King. Harper & Brothers.
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