FIRST NOVELS 99 



there should be registration by the State. Neville is 

 said to have become tired of Georgiana very soon. He 

 also, like Heloise, is repelled by hewn stone, but ' beneath 

 the shadow, if only of a single tree,' he says, ' gazing 

 dreamily upwards through the boughs or leaves at the 

 azure sky, listening to the breeze — " the sound of a going 

 in the tree-tops " — there is a something that enters into 

 me and carries me away with it in lofty dreams and 

 hopes.' 



The adventures of these people are very unreal, and 

 are ill-chosen for the bringing out of their several remark- 

 able characters. Carlotta's do not end with Louis, but 

 with an Austrian Archduke. Pierce, Heloise's father, 

 becomes ' Lord Lestrange ' by the death of a relative. 

 At last Georgiana and Neville, Noel — the ' battered 

 warrior ' — and Heloise, are married at the same time. 

 Neville builds a ' temple of Nature,' where you can sit 

 and look ' down the long aisle of columns out upon the 

 rolling downs,' and beyond them the sea ; where 3^ou can 

 hear a song from trees and hills and sun : Benedicite 

 omnia opera.* 



As a rule, Jefferies' treatment of his characters is quite 

 external ; he obviously makes them do this or that, 

 instead of allowing their natures to work. He is tr3dng 

 to imagine the motives of people who always give 

 sovereigns to footmen. ' Liar and traitor, begone !' says 

 one man to another, and the phrase is significant of some 

 of the book. But it is full of intellectual curiosity, and 

 among the expressions of opinion to be found in the fre- 

 quent and often excellent digressions, one or two may be 

 mentioned as signs of the author's developing mind and 

 character. 



He remarks ' how refreshing it is to pick up Froissart, 

 or even Machiavelli's " Florence," ' because they had 

 something to do ; their life was real, and not all proxy 

 and pretence like our own. He symbolizes modern 

 slavery by boots : 



* Restless Human Hearts. 



7—2 



