TILL MY WEDDING DAY.*
Rex for one fatal objection (which shall be specified presently) we should not hesitate in thinking that the purpose of this book was to attack the French custom of parentally arranged matches, and to set forth the expediency, not to say imperative necessity, of consulting the inclinations of the parties most nearly con- cerned in such transactions. The story relates the troubles of three French schoolgirls and their fiancee, whose affections have a singularly unfortunate knack of playing at cross-purposes with one another, and it is told autobiographically by one of the heroines, who are all three bosom friends. The other two have from childhood been promised in marriage by their parents, to whom, though sincerely fond of their daughters, it never once occurs that the ratification of the contract by their daughters' own hearts could be anything but a work of supererogation. And when one sees what general confusion and unhappiness result from this state of things, and how, in one case, it leads to a fatal termination, one feels as if there could be no doubt of the author's intention, and that she must certainly be endeavour lug to show the evil of the custom aforesaid.
Again, look at the conduct of the kindly, snuff-taking, little Mademoiselle Lancet's in the scene quoted below. She, it should be stated, is the mistress of a school whose specialty is the finishing-off for marriage of girls of good family ; and as the majority of her pupils have been engaged since childhood, and remain under her charge until called away to be married, she has necessarily had a wide experience as to the attitude of the juvenile female mind regarding pre-arranged matrimony. Does it not, then, speak volumes as to what the instinctive revolt of that attitude is, to find her taking it quite as a matter of course theta high-bred, well-behaved young lady of eighteen, should be roused to an outbreak like the following, simply by the prospect of an immediate interview with her fiend Bat Anidas breaks in upon my dreams. She comes to the school- room in one of her most reckless moods. She looks round, as if to take in everything. She walks backwards and forwards like a lioness in a cage. ' Why ! how dull you are, you girls! Whet nonsense this is ! Why don't you do something ? Why don't you move about, dance, upset the tables, break the windows, do anything ?'—' Break the windows ?'—' Yes, for more fresh air. One is stifled in such an • 2I11 My 'Wedding Day. By "A Frau& lady." London Mud and shake% atmosphere ; it is poisonous to breathe. Ah !'—She sees a collection of pence, just made by the girls for a poor boy ; she pounces upon them, takes aim, and crash go the pence through the panes of glass t The noise excites her;- she laughs aloud, and ceases only when all the money is gone and not a single pane is left.—' There, that's better !" —The girls stand aghast. In comes Mademoiselle Lanoue, and for a moment they look at each other silently.—'Terribly sorry, Mademoiselle,' says Anidas; ' I could not help it. There, girls, take my purse and make it op.'—' It is you, then, who—'—' It is. Pray send for the glazier.'—' I am sorry,' says Mademoiselle Lanone quietly, ` because of the example you—'— Oh, never fear, these won't do- anything of the kind. Will you, Mesdemoiselles ? And when I am gone you will have perfect peace.'—That shade of scorn again on her lips !—' Mademoiselle de Kervellon, dear Asides,' says Mademoiselle Lanoue. Anidas raises her hand in a deprecating manner, and Mademoiselle Lanone leaves the room. She has witnessed many similar scenes before, and understands but too well what it means. For she has not in vain had under her care girls who were bound to a inariage de convenance, and experts outbursts sometimes, and par- ticularly from the nobler ones; for, say what one will, there is degra- dation in the contract."
But however much all this may seem to confirm the theory of the book's object stated at the commencement of our
there exists an unanswerable argument to the contrary in the person of the third heroine. Untrammelled by any pre- engagement, and free to follow her own sweet will, she is is a position to boast proudly of the independent spirit she has shown in having chosen for herself, and loved without first bowing to a father's wish. And had the theory above mentioned been correct, the success attending the plan adopted in her case would obviously have been contrasted with the failure of that adopted in the case of the other two, and her history made to afford a brilliant example of the desirability of leaving girls to their own devices in the important business of selecting partners for life. But instead of this, lo and behold r she gets her love-affairs into quite as bad a muddle as those of her friends, and at last only finds happiness with a Baiter pre- sented to her against her will by her father. So the partially seen moral disappears utterly, and the book cannot be credited with having any aim more exalted than to depict the workings. of the tender passion upon girlish minds.
Stale (may we add, uninteresting P) as this leading theme is,. Till my Wedding Day is nevertheless not without freshness, and has a foreign atmosphere and colouring which assist in taking it. out of the ordinary groove of English love-tales. The scene lies its France, and the pictures of school and country life give the idea, of being the work of a person familiar with what she portrays. Except for that, however, there is no internal evidence to remind the reader of the nationality claimed on the title-page, or to show that the writer might not be an Englishwoman, The story is lively and readable, notwithstanding the sentimentality inseparable from its subject, and an abundance of rhapsodies devoted chiefly to love-sensations; and it contains plenty of incident, and has touches of nature in its sketches of girls. We most confess, however, that its people do not manage to inspire us with any very strong belief in their depth of feeling ; and that even when they support their professions by actions, and not only talk big but also do big, yet somehow or other our scepti- cism still remains unchanged. Of coarse, it is quite possible that this phenomenon should be attributed to invincible obtuse- ness on our part, rather than to any defect on the part of the author. And, indeed, when men go the length of dying or com- mitting murder sooner than give up their lady-loves, it does seem a little unkind to speak as if there could be a doubt of their having been thoroughly in earnest, and to accuse them of any lack of intensity of sentiment. Bat, be the reason what it may, certain it is that a vague consciousness of shallowness about the book's dramatis persona was present to us throughout. And as this fortunately prevented our sharing the implicit confidence that Claire herself had in the strength and durability of her love, we were thus spared the shock of painful surprise which would otherwise have been caused by the marvellous rapidity with which she contrived to adapt her affectionate circumstances, and dutifully to transfer them to the young man chosen by her father, when she found it would be impossible to marry the one she had chosen for herself. By.the.bye, the site of the school must have been curiously unsuitable for that purpose ; and it seems difficult to understand how a person of Mademoiselle Lanoue's experience could ever have been so injudicious as to set up an establishment for young ladies in the closest possible neighbourhood to one for young men, with only a wall in the grounds dividing them from one another ; or how she can have allowed her pupils a gymnasium where, by swinging high, they were able to overlook the partition wall, and exchange signs with
any students who might chance to be in the adjacent portion of the masculine domain. Which chance, be it observed, was naturally of frequent occurrence with young men who were by no means "backwards to come forwards," and had discovered a convenient key-hole through which to respond to the advances of their fair neighbours by transmitting offerings of affection in the shape of pictures of Saints.
Previous page
