DRAGOON AND DRAMATIST.*
IT happens but rarely that among the number of novels which call for more or less attention in this " book-writingest " age, we find one we regret to part with,—that, in fact, we do nof. part with, but which becomes a friend. Mr. Follett-Syne& novel is a rarity of this kind. We hope it may find due appreciation among younger readers, such,' at least, as do not turn over the pages of their daily three volumes just to glance at the story, for it can do them nothing but good ; but we are sure that it must recommend itself to the older people, among whom the steadiest and most untiring novel-readers are found,
as one of their very pleasantest experiences. The book is full of character, and the kind of wisdom which we can only call knowledge of the world ; yet there always seems to be in that phrase the implication of something harsh and some-
thing cynical, and in Toni Singleton there is not a trace of either harshness or cynicism. There is, on the contrary, a spirit, as kindly as it is discerning ; there is faith in God and man,
belief in loftiness of motive and purity of life, a true delineation Of the " gentleman " and "gentlewoman," a refined, playful humour, evidence of extensive reading without pedantry, and of taste which extends to details without being " fiuikin."
The unusual combination "dragoon and dramatist" points to a hero of an uncommon order. We confess to a prejudice against the military hero in fiction ; since the old days of Maxwell and Lever, he has ceased to be dashing and impossible, and has become vicious, vulgar, and detestable. The Guy- Livingstone school of writers, male and female, have dragged him down to the lowest moral and intellectual level, and the most consolatory reflection with which the tawdry rubbish that school has produced. may be thrown aside is, that the British officer as he appears in reality, is not in the least like the British officer as he appears in print. Now, Tom Singleton is a fine fellow, and modest ; he conforms to the motto on the title-page of the story of his life, and is "a very parfit, gentil knight." He is, however, nobody's own ideal knight at all, but a real, living, actual person, who takes the ups and downs of his life with a quiet, unboastful courage, is a good son, a true lover, a faithful friend, and a very clever man, even outside of the profession which he gets a chance, before the story ends, of adorning. The reader likes him cordially, and perhaps likea his father still better. Mr. Singleton is an admirably drawn character, and the key-note of the book is struck in the first chapter, which introduces us to Tom's father and mother, at their breakfast-table, "in the dining-room of an old-fashioned, red-brick house, on the outskirts of the small town of Barley- thorpe, in Granbyshire ":—
" These people had been married some fifteen years or more. Samuel Singleton was over forty, and he was not five years older than his wife ; but I doubt whether the youngest victims of the universal passion, or the happiest bride and bridegroom now honeymooning, are l'om Singleton, Dragoon and Dramatiat. By W. W. Follett-Synge, author of "Olivhi Raleigh." London: Chapman and Hall. more ardent lovers or have younger hearts than this almost middle-aged couple. Mr. Singleton was quick, not to say irritable, of temper. If he was not understood almost before ho had spoken, he was terribly apt to wax impatient with his listener, oven when that listener was his wife. Her occasional forgetfulness of names and incidents which were fresh in his own memory would sting him to more than mid- summer madness. He was prejudiced, sensitive, not altogether free from jealousy ; and proud, with the silent, awkward pride of a man who is too shy to assort himself, and too indolent to lay himself out for the good opinion Of society. But if Mr. Singleton was very far indeed from being a perfect man, his wife was as nearly perfect as a woman can be, and her goodness was a leaven of happiness in the lives of both."
Mr. Singleton is always amusing us, always enlisting our sympathy with his qualities and his oddities, from his act of generous kindness to Christian Graham, the daughter of his old friend, which leads to the chief love-affair of the story, to his appraisement of his neighbours, the Firebraces, Mr. Cockleby, and the self-conscious prig, Lord Frogmore ; who "never felt • quite at ease with a man who could not be made to see the difference, outside the House of Lords, between a peer and any other gentleman." The story bears traces of detached compo- sition, of having been written in intervals, and although its • construction has undoubtedly suffered in consequence, a great deal of the quaintness and pithiness of observation that render it so pleasant and engrossing to read is due to this cause. The author has much to tell us about every one whom he intro- duces, as well as letting them say a good deal for themselves ; and if he sometimes drops the thread of his story, and is slow to pick it up again, the other threads which he weaves into it in the meantime are bright-coloured and acceptable. For instan,ce, the discussions between Mr. Singleton and his friend Graham do not help forward the action of the story, but we could not spare them; with their pleasantly-pointed contrast between the two men, and Mr. Singleton's self-praise to his wife. "I am not opinionated like Graham," says lie; and she makes answer, "No, Sam, you are opinionated like yourself."
How Tom Singleton became a " dragoon" is not far to seek, nor how he fell in love with Christian Graham ; the chief in- terest and the only mystery of the story is how he became a ' dramatist." This is a well-managed mystery, and the clue to it was quite unsuspected by us, notwithstanding much practice in detecting the hidden purposes of novelists, until it revealed itself to the discomfiture of the villain of the book. Not that Frederick Graham remains a villain, that would by no means be in char- acter with Mr. Follett- Synge's genial, charitable, hopeful tone ; he has a place for repentance, and also that great grace itself, provided for him ; but he is not made unduly happy or self- complacent in the end. We fancy Mr. Follett-Synge has suffered, either in his own person or in that of a friend, hard things at the hands of publishers ; he portrays so very detest- able an individual in Mr. Armstrong, the father of the sweet, loyal, truly womanly girl whom the selfish Frederick marries.
The odious but amusing venality of Mr. Armstrong, and the unconscious, actually boastful selfishness of Frederick, render -them very entertaining, and contrast admirably with the single- mindedness and generosity of the dragoon and dramatist whom they so little appreciate.
There is evidently a great deal of drawing from life in this novel, but from life surveyed in a cheerful spirit by kindly eyes. The incidental sketches are very happy, and the author is especially to be congratulated on Miss Vavasour. There has not been a more amusing spinster in fiction since the immortal Miss Pratt, of Miss Ferrier's second best novel, The inheritance; and she is so genuinely good, with all her oddities, that she does not -contradict or clash with the bonhomie that pervades the book. We feel sure Miss Vavasour is drawn from life, although Mr.
• Follett-Synge is evidently incapable of putting spite into even an imaginary picture, and we should very much like to be acquainted with her. The serene indifference to the exaspera- tion of the testy, diverting, and excellent Admiral Haviland, with which Miss Vavasour relates her own conquests, and those of the pretty girls whom she is always wanting to settle in life ; her awful blunders in geography and proper names, which drive him nearly wild, but leave her totally un- abashed; her shrewdness and generosity, her persevering oddity, .even up to the last glimpse we have of her, when she and. the Adniral have been quietly married on the sly,—all these and many other peculiarities, which we must leave the reader to find out for himself, make Miss Vavasour delightful.
The story ends very happily, after it has wound through some -troublous ways. It leaves an impression of a cheerful, manly, reverent mind, and a highly cultivated intellect; there is not a jarring note in it ; it is, as we have said before, a book which becomes a friend.
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