228 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



representative value for the characters that group themselves about 

 his central figure. In his quest we find him levying tribute upon 

 the columns of "The Times," as Dickens might have explored the. 

 shop-signs of the slums. The names determined, the localities next 

 concern him. Newport is chosen for the launching of his mimic 

 world, and Newport in turn necessitates the late summer season. 

 With an inveterate dislike, in spite of Balzac's and Turgénief's ex- 

 ample, of solid blocks of retrospective explanation by the author 

 James provides in his plan for an expositional scene between Rosanna 

 Gaw and her friend Mr. Bradham. The main difficulty seems to be 

 the precise determination of the ages of his characters. Rosanna is 

 conceived as having been in Europe as a young girl of sixteen with 

 her mother. This was sixteen years before the opening of the main 

 action. They met the Fielders, mother and son, and their intimacy 

 was fostered by the old business connection of Rosanna's father with 

 Mrs. Fielder's half-brother Betterman. The latter had been estranged 

 from Mrs. Fielder, chiefly one gathers because of her deficient Amer- 

 icanism, and now that she is contemplating a second marriage with an 

 alien Englishman the brother delivers his ultimatum. Unless she con- 

 sents to send her son to his care in America he will let her continue in 

 her voluntary foolish poverty. The boy of fourteen is allowed by 

 his mother to choose his own fate, and Rosanna describes to Mr. 

 Bradham an interview among the Madonnas of a Dresden gallery — 

 a scene that might conceivably have been more effective had the 

 years of its actors been less tender — in which she confirms the young- 

 ster's intention to remain abroad. 



As she had engineered Gray's fate in that earlier time, so now in 

 her altered regard for his uncle Betterman, she has contrived, as has 

 been stated, to have the young man recalled and a reconciliation 

 effected. This compels James to a special consideration of the old 

 man's case. He has lost his two children, and is represented as 

 having reached in his old age a curious philosophical detachment 

 from money. This was necessary in order to explain his bequest of 

 unnamed millions to a man like Graham Fielder with a child's mind 

 for matters monetary. This precipitates the further difficulty also of 

 exhibiting Gray as far other than the fool he appears to be when 

 placing himself so recklessly in Haughty's power. Then the mis- 

 appropriation of the millions has to be organised, and this for James 

 who is confessedly a sharer in Gray's practical incapacity is the most 

 teasing problem that confronts him. Everything must occur for the 

 sake of compactness within sixteen months, and the melodramatic 

 pitfalls incident to Haughty's exposure must at all costs be avoided. 

 The more attentively James confronts this particular problem the 



