HEAVY-LADEN, AND OLD-FASHIONED FOLK.*
THE "Pseudonym Library" contains only short stories by authors who do not publish under their own name,—not a particularly good reason for constituting them into a class of their own. But we suppose that the good sense and discrimina- tion of the editor make up for the caprice of this rather arbitrary appeal to unsatisfied curiosity as the only ground for the selection of a special library. Certainly the first and last of the series, the stories of "Mademoiselle lie" and "Ilse Frapan," were well worth publication, for they are the composi- tions of authors with the true literary touch anda genuine origin- ality of their own. Mrs. Macdonell, who has translated the two stories of this rising Hamburg authoress for us, tells us what we can well imagine, that her task, especially as regards the second tale, "Old-Fashioned Folk," was one of considerable difficulty, and that it would, indeed, never have been accom- plished had not "a master-hand" which she is not per- mitted to name, come to the rescue. But whatever the difficulties of the task, no trace of their existence now remains. Mrs. Macdonell's work reads like an English * hi. Prapan Heavy Laden, and Old-Fashioned Folk. Translated by Helen A. Maedonell. "The Pseudonym Library." London• T. Fisher Tinwin.
original, and a very good English original too, though the story itself bears every evidence of perfect intimacy with those odd corners of Hamburg life on which its vigorous and fresh young writer has actually drawn for her vivid pictures.
"Heavy-Laden" is a tragic story, a story of murder, flight, and bitter remorse,—we cannot say repentance, for of that there is little trace, unless the willingness to lose life in saving another's may always be regarded as proof positive of penitence for having destroyed life in the heat of passion,— which we cannot admit. It is told with almost as much vigour and realism as Dickens's story of the murder, flight, and bitter remorse of Sikes at the close of Oliver Twist. We do not think that any one can read it without being impressed by its power. But the title, as well as the closing sentence, betrays a little of that excess of sympathy with the " heavy-laden " conscience of the sinner, which is betrayed by requiring no further evidence of penitence than the keen suffering of remorse. At first we are led to suppose that the story chiefly concerns itself with the simple and delicately sketched factory-girl who is the occasion of her husband's jealousy ; but we soon learn that its real interest is to centre in his own fierce and unrestrained vindictive- ness, and not in his wife's almost innocent love of admiration.. The story is admirably told, but we cannot admit that "the merciful waters" in which Klefecker is swallowed up at its close, could possibly have rid him of "his grievous burden."
The more perfect gem is, however, to be found in the second and still shorter story, "Old-Fashioned Folk." The description of the two sets of twins in the old Hamburg store, of their elderly devotion to each other, and of the passionate anxiety of the other three when the younger brother,—called "the boy," who is nevertheless thirty-six,—is delayed on the night of a great thunderstorm on his return to Hamburg across the Elbe, is told with more than a touch of Dickens's quaint humour and force. Then there enters into the story an interloper, Herr Tewes, a widower, who is a thriving furniture- dealer, and who is supposed by the other three to have rescued "the boy" from the Elbe at the landing-stage where both Herr Tewes and Johann got a sousing in the river. In reality it was Johann who had rescued Herr Tewes ; but this Johann, in his modesty, had entreated Herr Tewes to conceal from his brother and sisters ; and Herr Tewes, who is vain, pretentious, and a little of a humbug, is only too willing to -accept the glory of a deliverer. He is disposed, too, to follow up his advantage by replacing his lost wife with the twin-sister of Johann, and she is misled by her overflowing gratitude to the man who saved, as she supposes, her brother's life, into consent, though the widower's departed Maria has been only six months in her grave. The disapprobation of Johann is silent but evident ; and as Hannchen really cares infinitely more for Johann than she does for Herr Tewes, the situation gradually becomes more and more strained. The vanity of her elderly suitor is hurt, and a mutual dislike springs up between him and Johann, which at last brings the engagement to an end, to the great delight of both pairs of twins, who celebrate the breaking-off of the match with much more joy and effusion of sentiment than that with which they had celebrated the betrothal. The holiday trip in which Herr Tewes betrays his real vulgarity, and so completely dis- illusions not only the elder twins but also Hannchen, is told with superlative skill. There is no touch of exaggeration in it, but the complete alienation of the tender-hearted and mutually devoted Hamburgers from the vain and vulgar- minded Hamburger, is brought out as only true literary genius could have brought it out ; and the part played in the drama by Dumpling,' the favourite dog of the Becker family, is described with genuine humour. "Use Frapan," who may, we hope, soon cast off her very awkward pseudonym, and appear before the world under her real name, has un- questionably, if she lives and works, a remarkable literary future before her.
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