1 JULY 1871, Page 23

DOROTHY FOX.*

"CAPTAIN CHARLES EaEteroN VERSCHOYLE, 17th Lancers," comes home from the Crimea wounded and an invalid. Walking, while Ito is yet too weak for the exertion, through the streets of Plymouth, he is compelled by a sudden faintness to take shelter in the shop of Nathaniel Fox, cloth and woollen draper, where Dorothy Fox and Judith, her father's servant, take care of him. After an hour or so's rest, during which Dorothy watched him while he slept, and he, while still seeming to be asleep, had watched Dorothy, " as she sat in the old, black, carved chair in her gown of grey soft stuff, with her rebellious hair (in spite of brushing and tight fastening up) twined into little golden rings, he goes away to his lodgings, not forgetting the fair face almost infantine in its youthfulness," and not forgotten, for Dorothy, though by the principles of her faith she should be set against " men of war," cannot but think kindly of that pale handsome face and wounded arm. Iu process of time, to Captain Verechoyle comes his sister, Audrey, a gay beauty, who has somehow come to years not much less than thirty without securing a husband, much to the grief of her worldly mother, Lady Laura. Audrey hears of her brother's • Dorothy Fox. By Louisa Parr. 3 vole. London: Stratum and O. 1871.

adventure, and, being curious, tells him that he must call to return his thanks. So they go, and Captain Verschoyle thinks " he will take a bunch of flowers to the girl." A bunch of flowers he does take, Audrey choosing a large bouquet of roses and lilies,—" these people," she says, " always favour quantity rather than quality."

They do not find them at the shop, for the Foxes live at a house in the country, and, indeed, are quite different from the "these

people" of. Audrey Verschoyle's fancy. The Captain's first glance at the room into which they are shown reveals to him the horrible blunder that he has made in mistaking the maid Prudence for Dorothy's mother, and makes him feel that his nosegay is not exactly in place. The scene is well and simply drawn by Miss Parr :— " Captain Verschoyle was not naturally oppressed with bashfulness or awkwardness, but on this occasion no youth raw from a remote country district would have felt more confused. Audrey was so much amused at the appearance he presented, as ho stood there trying to stammer out something, the enormous nosegay all the while in his hand, that it required a violent effort on her part to keep from bursting into a fit of laughter. But she restrained herself, and came to the rescue by saying, Mrs. Fox, you will pardon this intrusion, I am sure. My brother and I felt your kindness to him was so great that our gratitude would not permit us to leave Plymouth without thanking you for it.'—I am very pleased to see thee,' said Patience ; then, turning to Captain Vers- choyle, she continued, ' The mistake thou made in taking Judith for Dorothy's mother was a natural one, and Judith is so valued by us all, that I appreciate the intention which made thee come so far to thank her, quite as much as if thy visit had boon meant for myself.' Patience little knew how her unstudied speech, prompted entirely by the wish to set the young man at me, raised her at once in Miss Versohoylo's opinion. ' How well done she thought ; that woman has breeding in her, though she may be the daughter of a thousand shopkeepers.' Captain Verschoyle began to recover himself, and by the time Dorothy had relieved him of his floral burden, saying, ' What beautiful lilies ! I was wishing I had some more this morning,' ho had found his courage again ; and feeling the truth had best be told, be said that he had got them for her, think- ing that she lived in the town, and would perhaps accept them, and excuse the poorness of his offering. They were soon perfectly at home, Patience listening to an account of Captain Verechoyle's subsequent illness, and Dorothy showing Audrey the flower-painting she was en- gaged upon. Audrey thought she had never before soon anything so pretty as the child'a artless manner, so self-possessed and yet so simple."

Dorothy and her mother are indeed al ways delightful, full of sweet simplicity and grace, and surrounded with an air of tender- ness and repose which seems never to have such a charm as it has amongst the womankind of the Friends. And, as far as literary and artistic merit is concerned, what we say of those two cha- racters we may say of all the " Quaker" part of the story. Not that we get in every Quaker home the sweet idyll that charms us so much in Nathaniel Fox's Plymouth home. The shy and clumsy Josiah Crewdson, Dorothy's intended husband, whom her father tries to believe worthy of her ; the stern sisters, Jemima and Kezia Crewdson ; Nathaniel Fox himself, with a tender heart of his own, and not wholly irreceptive of the humanizing influence of the sweetest of wives, but still a Friend of the stiffest backbone and most angular cut,—these are very different from the exquiiite types of Prudence and Dorothy ; still they are drawn, one and

all, with a skill that leaves nothing to be desired. Bat the novel contains another set of characters, and, so to speak, another plot, probably meant to contrast with the unworldliness of life among the Friends, but, it must be said, somewhat tedious and distasteful. Captain Verschoyle himself, who is the connecting

link between the two stories, belongs decidedly to the lower class. That Dorothy should fall in love with him is not indeed surprising; brought up among the dull greys and browns of Quaker life, she had always had the taste for bright colours, and naturally found the soldier's red very attractive ; but no male reader, at least, will hesitate to pronounce him wholly unworthy of so sweet a creature. The description of the growth of her innocent love for him is as pretty and touching a thing as we could desire to read. Only we

feel that it is too good to be wasted on so selfish and cowardly a nature ; and when poor awkward Josiah shows that he has the heart of a true knight beneath his straight-cut coat, and puts his gay rival to shame, we feel almost inclined to wish that the story might have had a different ending, that Miss Parr could have had the courage to

throw her military hero overboard, and bestow the prize which she has to give on the man who deserved it most. And what is true of the Captain is true more or less of his belongings. We do not mean that these are badly drawn ; but we know them, per- haps only too well, already. Lady Laura, worldly, selfish, and valetudinarian ; Audrey, with her loud declarations that she means to marry for money, but finding, when the right man pre- sents himself, that she really has a heart ; the kindly old million- aire, with the great house which he has bought, and the heir of the ruined family which sold it, these are familiar figures which

we do not particularly care to see, though they are sketched with an artistic hand ; but Miss Parr's speciality, the life amongst the Friends, charms us. We hope that we shall find her dealing with the subject again. She has, though without, we should say, the advantage of much practice, the gifts of a painter of domestic life, and among others, notably one which we had almost forgotten to mention, that of quiet subdued humour (nothing in this way could be better than Dorothy's treatment of poor Josiah), and she has a subject with which circumstances seem to have made her familiar. Good as Dorothy Fox is, we expect something much. much better from her pen.