NOVELS.
IN SEARCH OF EGERIA.*
THERE are notoriously a good many people incapable of appreciating the flashing satire of "Barry Lyndon "—among them men not in the least blind to the subtle colours of satire —because they can never feel comfortable on any terms in the presence of a scamp. Readers in the least troubled by such sensitiveness, and probably others who are not, may think that Mr. Courtney has misdirected his powers of observation and knowledge of life in using as his vehicle the character of a man who is essentially ignoble. To be sure, distinct graces are often found in the dilettante and amateur. A dilettante Maurice Westerton undoubtedly is ; and in the French sense he is an " amateur " of philandering, committing himself with one woman after another, and generally in such a way that he cannot retire from the adventure with credit. Mr. Courtney evidently meant to draw Maurice Westerton exactly as he is; he did not draw this deceiver and worldling by mistake for a harmless butterfly. He tells us the faults of Westerton, describing one of them as cowardly and past for- giveness, and adding that he cannot help liking Westerton all the same. Well, that is an intelligible and familiar position. If mothers often have a soft spot in their hearts for the worst behaved of their sons, an author may be allowed to rest secure in the same irrationality. And do we not all like some persons against all reason, frankly avowing that we could better spare better men? It does not follow, however, that the reader will take the view of the mother, or the author, or the friend, and we cannot help feeling ourselves that Maurice Westerton is unworthy of being the pretext of most of Mr. Courtney's remarkably shrewd observations.
The Westerton type exists no doubt. Perhaps we have all met him—a serene man, Who would be the better for being ruffled more easily, for then he might feel more sensitively for others. He needs the continual support of women, and yet is in love with no particular woman. To men he is quite a good "pal," knowing how to play the game of life with them and playing it considerately. Although be is never quite serious with women, his intellectual preoccupations are serious enough ; he is like the Man, mentioned by Mr. Courtney, who invariably talked to his partner at a ball about the immortality of the soul.
Such a man in relation with various women must naturally • In Search of Rgeria : Episodes in the life of Maurice Hestertes. By W. L. Courtney. London: Chapman and Es". ON
be the hero of very various situations, and Mr. Courtney's comments on these have that satisfying quality which somehow seems to hover between truism and revelation.
"A man at forty," says Mr. Courtney, "is often a cynic. A woman of the same age is often inclined to throw her bonnet over the moon." Again : " Wars start from trifling circumstances, although they are rarely concerned with trifling issues,. Similarly, ruptures of friendships are caused by bagatelles, albeit that the true reasons lie deep in. a pro- gressive but unrealized process of alienation." Again "A momance begins when two animated individuals can be silent for at least five minutes without either of them noticing it It ends when both are afraid of silence." Again, on the important ;subject of laughter
Sense men do not laugh, and, like Cassius, they are dangerous. Some women only smile,, and then they are generally haughty and self-opinionated. Laughter eau represent the weak side of a character; and, if you change the facial muscles, it can equally express a sleepy strength."
Excellent, too, is the manner in which Mr. Courtney describes the contrast between Westerton's vices and the simple and, in a superficial sense, devotional side of his character. leVesterton had an artistic admiration for saintliness, or, perhaps, it was that of the vicious man who often will not tolerate that those who profess to be good. should not be really good. Westerton "was fond of stopping before the photographs of celebrities of the day, exposed in the shop-windows, and pointing out the essential differences in this respect which their faces revealed. Your man of science, as a rule, has a strongly marked face, full of thought- fulness, but entirely devoid of sweetness. You would not look for 'goodness,' as such, in the lineaments of a great chemist or agreat biologists Yet Maurice always maintained that Darwin's face had, not only dutifulness impressed upon it, but something very like the saintly look—a point in which I found it hard to agree. Bishops, on the other hand, used to excite Maurice's risibility."
Westerton was quite capable of distressing himself genuinely ever the" dark night of the soul," as experienced by a great- aunt, whose diary had happened to come into his possession, but his very emotions were, after all, a refinement of selfish- ness. In the end be made just the marriage one would not have expected, and in thus disposing of him Mr. Courtney most truly indicates the inconsequence of cleverness and agreeableness that are without character.
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