4IO 



The Review of Reviews. 



October 1, 190e. 



mongage to save him from foreclosure. After her 

 fathers death Jethro adopts her as his own child, 

 and as she grows to womanhood under his shelter- 

 ing care, he shudders at the thought of the comhig 

 of the day when she must discover the arts by which 

 he rose and the corruption by which he flourished. 



Cvnthia meets and falls in love with Bob Wor- 

 thington, the son of Jethro 's chief political oppo- 

 nent, and the complications thus arising give in- 

 terest to the latter half of the book. Worthington, 

 who is himself as corrupt, but by no means as able, 

 as Jethro, opens a newspaper attack upon the Boss. 

 A scathing exposure of the Boss's methods falls into 

 Cvnthia's hands. Horror-stricken at the disclosure, 

 she hastens to Coniston in order to learn the truth. 

 The scene that ensues is full of tragic force. 



•I wonld believe no one." she said. '• I will believe no 

 one until— unless you tell me. Uncle Jethro.' she cried id 

 agony, •■Uncle Jethro, tell me that those things are not 



Curious to relate, though his heart was breaking, his 

 voice was ateadv— steadv as it always had been. ■'I— Ive 

 seen it com n'. "Cvnthy," he said. • I never knowed any- 

 thin" I was atraid of before— but I was afraid of this. 1 

 knowed what vour notions of right and wrong was— your— 

 your mother "had them. They're the principles of good 

 people. I— I knowed the day would come when you d ask. 

 but 1 wanted to be happy as long as I could. I haiu t 

 been happy. Cvnthy. But you was right wheu you said 

 Id tell vou the truth. S— so I will. I guess them things 

 which you si)eak about are true— the way I got where I am. 

 and the wav I made my livin'. They— they ham t put :ust 

 as they'd ought to be, perhaps, but that's the way 1 done 

 it in the main. " »,-,»,» u-.. 



When he had finished speaking, she stole silently to his 

 side and slipped her hand in his. He trembled violently 

 at her touch. , . , , .t i 



■■Uncle Jethro." she said m a low tone. 1 love you. 



■\t the words he trembled more violently still. '' No. no. 

 Cynthv " he answered thickly, "don't say that— I— I don t 

 expect it, Cynthy. I know you can't— 't'wouldn t be right, 

 Cj-nthv. I'hain't fit forit. " ., t 



"Uncle Jethro." she said. "I love you better than I 

 have ever loved you in my lite."— 'Pp. 592-3.) 



But she will no longer live on the proceeds of his 

 politics. She insists upon earning her own livmg 

 as schoolmistress. Under her influence Jethro ab- 

 dicates, to the consternation of his supporters. Deaf 

 to all entreaties, he refuses to secure his re-election 

 as Chairman of the Board of Selectmen, and Wor- 

 thingti.n triumphs. But love, which often p'ays the 

 mischief with politicians, interfered. Bob Worthing- 

 ton insists upon declaring his love for Cynthia. _His 

 father disinherits him, and demands the dismissal 

 of Cvnthia from her school. This attack upon Cyn- 

 thia brought Jethro back into politics with the 

 spring of an angry tiger. To avenge himself on 

 Cvnthia's adversary he resumes his old position as 

 Boss in the throne room, and by a brilliant cam- 

 paign reduces Worthington to extremities. .A.t the 

 last moment, when Worthington's plans tremble on 

 the verge of ruin, the Boss sends for his enemy and 

 offers to " let up on him " if he will consent to the 

 marriage of Cynthia to his son. After a struggle 

 of despair Worthington con.sents. Jethro throws 

 over his allies, acquiesces in his defeat, and retires 

 from politics content to have secured the happiness 

 of his adored child. 



Mr. Winston Churchill revels in the raptures of 

 the lovers. I have quoted above how Jethro Bass 



Kisseu >.^yntnia i. <„vntnia ii. was seizea 

 with almost equal violence by Bob Wor- I 

 Mr. Churchill's ladies evidently liked to I 



seized and kissed Cynthia I. Cvnthia II. was seized 



and kissed 



thington. Mi 



be hugged. Here is kiss N'o. i 



He seized her. roughly, indeed, in his arms, bat bis very 

 roughness was a proof of the iuteasity of his love. For 

 an instant she lay palpitating against him. and as long 

 as he lives he will remember tlie first exquisite touch of 

 her firm but supple figure, and the marvellous communion 

 of her lips. X current from the great store that was in 

 her pent up and, all unknown, ran through him, and then 

 she had struggled out of his arms and fled, leaving him 

 standing alone in the parlour. 



With that " marvellous communion of the lips " 

 Love came to Cynthia and burned out for a while 

 all _ reason. Cynthia, however, was marvel- 

 lously well controlled, and despite her devotion to 

 her lover she denied him another kiss until her 

 father's consent had been given to their marriage. 

 Then 



He came quickly into the room and stopped again, 

 quiverinfr from head to foot with the passion which the sight 

 of her never failed to unloose within him. Still she did 

 not speak, but her lips trembled, and tlie love leaping in 

 his eyes kindled a yearning in liers — a yearning she was 

 powerless to resist. 



He could not say whether this woman, whom he had 

 seized 1),^- force before, had shown a like vitality in her 

 surrender. He only knew that her arms were woven about 

 his neck, and that the kiss of whicli he had dreamed was 

 again on his lips, and tiiat he felt once more h.er wonder- 

 ful, supple body pressed against his, and her heart beat- 

 ing, and her breast heaving. And he knew that the 

 strength of the love in her which he had gained was be- 

 yond estimation. . . . 



Thus for a time they swung together in ethereal space, 

 bieatliless with the motion of their flight. "The duration 

 of sucli moments is — in word5— limitless. Now he held Iter 

 against him. and again he lield her away that his eyes 

 might feast upon hers until she dropped " her lashes and 

 the crimson tide flooded into her face. an<l she hid it again in 

 the refuge she had longed for — murmuring his name. 



Despite these ecstasies and excursions into ethe- 

 real space, Mr. Winston Churchill has a verv fine 

 gift of subtle humour, and it is only occasionallv that 

 he lets himself go in this fashion. 



I now come to " The Twice Bom," a strange, 

 mystical romance, which is published bv Mr. Well- 

 by. It is dedicated without permission to Sir Oliver 

 Lodge, and is written by a former member of the 

 Psychical Research Society. Although cast in the 

 form of a story, it is in realitv a mystical treatise, 

 designed to set forth the possibility of the birth 

 of souls on the astral plane as the result of intense 

 affection between two people who never came to- 

 gether as man and wife. Souls so born may be — 

 so the doctrine goes — incarnated on earth in bodies 

 born of the conjugal life of another couple. Such 

 children are twice-born and have four parents — two 

 on the astral and two on the physical plane. In 

 the storv the parents on the astral are a married 

 couple who deliberately elected to limit their union 

 to the spiritual plane. There they had two chil- 

 dren, Reggie and Stella, whom they meet at night 

 in dream. Afterwards these two souls are incar- 

 nated under other names as the children of another 

 couple. Thev recognise their spiritual parents, and 

 as their earthly progenitors are happily remo^'ed by 

 an earthquake they are adopted by their original 

 parents, and all ends happily. If there had been 



