WINNIE'S HISTORY.*
WrxiritEn GLENDOWER is a young lady whose history has in- terested us a good deal more than the histories of fashionable maidens usually do. Her story is carefully told, and without that straining after fine-writing which so often disfigures the novel of the day. The plot, too, is not quite the old-fashioned - one of a long love-agony, ending in bliss or a tragedy, as the case may be, and this is an additional charm. Winnie gets married early in the book, and her joys and sorrows nearly all relate to her married life, not to the time of "love's young dream." It would be unjust to the author to unfold all the plot, and we shall not try to do so. Some glimpse of the setting of the story will, however, prove interesting, and may induce people to read the book itself.
Winifred Glendower is the younger of two daughters, born to an old General and his fond wife, who had made love to him and won him when he came home from the East a sorrowing widower. Besides these two daughters, this couple had a son, George, and the General had a son called Cyril by his first wife. The estates were Lady Glendower's, and the General had taken her family name when he married her. The only other member of this family group who must be mentioned is "Aunt" Eunice, really the grand-aunt of the children, arid Winnie's special friend. This old lady has a cherished memory of other days hid away in her heart, which has served to make her apparently lonely and un- blest life a sweet one. Lina, or Gwendoline, Winnie's sister, is a young woman of a hard, ambitious nature, altogether dif- ferent from her sister, and as their mother is taken up with nursing the invalid General, Winnie's chief companion and most cherished friend is this old lady, whom, in defiance of all laws of consanguinity, she calls "Granny." We are first introduced to Winnie in her great-aunt's drawing-room at Abergwent, a happy, innocent girl of less than seventeen, full of dreams of beauty and truth, and of a love for nature, which do not promise well for her heart when it gets face to face with the lures and sophistries of the world of fashion. The course of "Winnie's history" is determined to a considerable extent, though unconsciously, by that of her sister, who, after falling desperately in love with a French Count attached to the Embassy in London, only to find that he has been playing at love with her, revenges her wounded vanity by marrying John Armstrong, son of a vulgar millionaire manufacturer. In her gnawing thirst for excitement and display, she takes this husband on the Continent, and after a time, they settle in Paris for a season, John devoting himself to scientific pursuits, bug collecting and such like, and his wife to shining among the tinsel and garish fashionables of the Second Empire. Thither Minnie goes on a visit, escorted by her brother George, who had a proper aristocratic contempt for the plebeian John Armstrong, and who is in several respects very decidedly "the fool of the family,"—a caricature, in short, that rather detracts from the quiet gracefulness of most of the rest of the story. It is at Paris that Winnie meets her " fate." She had had something like an episode of love before with Stephen Armstrong, John's younger, intellectual, and philan- thropic brother, but thanks to the dogged strategy of George, this had not got beyond the rapt, sentimental-admiration stage, and Winnie, a sweet maiden still in her teens, with "a profusion of soft brown hair," "large soft grey eyes, with long dark lashes," and a decidedly retrousse' nose, a bright, intelligent, susceptible, truth-loving English maiden, fell heart-whole into the snare that lay as it were at her feet. It all happened by accident, so to say, • Winnie's History: a Novel. By M. O. 15. Simpson. S vols. London: Hurst and SW:skint. 1877.
as of course "fateful things always do." Lines old lover, Count de Canisy, came back to Paris after eager wanderings in the East, and without either of them knowing who the other was, Winnie and he met one day in the galleries of the Louvre. Here is just how it occurred:—
" She was standing, 'Murray' in hand, before the picture of St. Mar- garet treading on the dragon, and in retreating a few paces to gain a better view, she pushed against a tall, strikingly handsome man, to whom she could not apply her ordinary strictures on the appearance of Frenehmen,—indeed, she scarcely knew whether he was French or English. He was very fair, with dancing blue eyes, and a abort glossy light beard. In much confusion at her awkwardness, she dropped her 'Murray,' which was instantly returned to her by the stranger.— ' Pardon, Monsieur,' was all that she could say. He addressed her in English, and then a little extra care and distinctness in his utterance showed that he was not a countryman of her own. That picture,' he said, has been always one of my great favourites, and now I shall be eternally obliged to it for giving me an excuse for speaking to an English lady. I have been so long in your country, that I love it almost as much as my own.'—' It is a beautiful picture,' she stammered forth, afraid of being silent or of speaking, lest she should be guilty of rudeness or forwardness.—' I am glad that you appreciate it,' he replied. 'How artistic is the contrast between that little white foot and the monster's frightful head ! In the whola figure there is a youth and purity and freshness which suffice to tell the story. I suppose, as you have the handbook, that this is your first visit. May I be per- mitted, therefore, to act as showman ? I have only just returned from a long journey, and I came to see some recent additions to the gallery.' Winnie did not venture, or by any means wish to refuse. The stranger's easy and at the same time respectful manner convinced her that he was a gentleman. She glanced at Lisette, but the waiting-woman was too well trained to express anything by her looks. He wont with hor round the rooms, pointing out the beauties of the principal pictures, and without any pedantry gave her such an excellent lecture on art that she was quite sorry when he said, 'But I must beg your pardon, Mademoiselle, for having detained you so long. I see that we have spent two hours in this place. I scarcely thought that it had been one.' —' Nor I,' said Winnie. have enjoyed it so much! I hope to know this gallery very well in time, for I am coming to paint here.'—' exclaimed the gentleman,' there is nothing that I like so much. When- ever I have a little leisure, I apply for a permission. Mademoiselle,' he continued, with a low bow, 'I have the honour of wishing you good morning. Adieu, Mademoiselle !' and he walked rapidly away."
Soon after, Winnie saw this fascinating, mysterious stranger talk- ing familiarly to her sister at an evening reception, and was introduced to him in proper form. Knowing little of the episode which had occurred between this man and her sister, she easily grew to trust him, and suffered him gradually to make love to her, and steal her heart away. All the time that he was doing this, however, he kept up a flirtation with Lina, which excited in that frivolous woman's mind the most dangerous feelings, and even stirred her husband to thoughts of jealousy, until his sharpened eyesight caught a love-glance of Winnie's to her lover one night, which revealed the true secret. The Count de Canisy is the villain of the play, and in some respects a most extraordinary villain he proves to be. So astute is he in his duplicity, that he actually leaves Lina to suppose that he is coming to ask her to fly with him, when, after having won Winnie's love, he seeks an interview with the sister to make a formal proposal. Here is the scene :—
"He sat down opposite to her, and began a common-place conversa- tion in order to prolong the interview. 'It is the last time that she will be civil to me,' he said to himself ; she really is a very handsome woman. I rather wish she were not Winnie's sister.' . . . . . Did you stay long after we did ?' said Line who was beginning to think that she had been dreaming on the night before. 'Yes,' said the Count ; I stayed some little time. I was obliged to show myself to the ambassa- dress, and to speak to some of my friends, for while you wore there I had eyes and ears for no one else.' After all, she had not been dream- ing, then ; she attempted desperately to change the conversation. Paris is becoming quite hot,' she said, although it is only April. I cannot think how we shall endure it in July ; we shall have had more than enough of it by that time ; we have been here nearly four months already." And for the last two,' said Emile, 'how can I sufficiently thank you ?' It was time for him to speak out ; he could trifle no longer.—He went on passionately,—' But for this blessed experience, I could never have believed in the happiness of the last few weeks, and the still greater prospect of happiness in the future.'—' Happiness!' said Lina solemnly,' how dare we talk of happiness ?'—' Yes, I repeat, of happiness. I now know that the feelings I had until this year mistaken for love were not worthy of the name.' Line waited breathlessly for his next sentence. I trust that the devotion of my whole life will prove that I am not unworthy of the treasure I hope to gain.'—' Oh Emile; cried Lina, what do you mean ? How can there be anything but misery in store for us? We must never meet again; we have both been wrong, very wrong. Help me, Emile; save me even from your- self.' She dropped on her knees, and held out her clasped hands to him imploringly. This was more than he had bargained for and how- ever flattering, must be put a stop to instantly. He hurried towards her and raised her from the ground, retaining her hands in one of his while he threw the other arm round her. 'Line,' he exclaimed, dear sister, surely you cannot reproach yourself,—all along I have felt sure of your approval ; you must know that I shall make Winnie's happiness the object of my most tender care.' Lina started back from the embrace, which was to her the moat biting insult, combined, as it was, with his profession of love for another. She could command herself no longer. Traitor !' she exclaimed. 'You have, then, been throwing dust in my eyes,—you have been using me as a cloak to cover your designs upon my sister, requiting my regard for you with the basest ingratitude and treachery.'—' Pardon me,' said Emile, coldly, 'if I can imagine a greater breach of honour than to aspire to the hand of your sister: Lina was too excited to notice the sneer. But it is ray own fault, she continued ; 'knowing you as I did, how could I ever suffer you to darken these doors ? ' At this instant Winnie entered, and there wits a momentary pause, during which Winnie looked from the one te the other in bewildered consternation. Lina's wrath was not spent, however; it now burst forth afresh. She turned upon her sister,— ' And you, Winnie,' she said, 'poor, misguided girl, what a tangled web of deceit and falsehood you have been weaving ! ' Winnie's conscience was not perfectly clear ; she could not answer. 'I assure you. Madame,' said her lover, 'it was only last night that I ventured to declare myself to your sister. You must forgive us for settling our affairs so com- pletely a l'Anglaise."
We can hardly believe that two women could have been so abso- lutely blind to the clever acting of this Emile, this Count, even supposing one of them to be a girl not out of her teens; but anyhow, this scene is not a pleasant one, and is in worse taste than any other in the book.
The difficulties of Winnie and her lover are not of long dura- tion, but her agonies are considerable while the suspense lasts, for she believes Emile to be the truest, noblest, purest of men. He, for his part, suffers in a fashion too, for he really likes the girl, and schemes and lies to overcome obstacles in the way of their union. The chief of these consists in his religion, and in the fact that he has become, by the death of their only son, heir tc. an old Legitimist couple, the Marquis and Marquise de Canisy, the latter of whom is a great stickler for the true faith. How he lies and acts to excite pity in his aged relative's heart for the "persecuted" maiden he is desirous to rescue, how he persuades her into suffering him to drop a prearranged match of the true French kind and go off in quest of this distressed maiden, and the escapades of the chase, are, together with the final triumph, matters which the reader must unravel for himself. If he forgets the im- probability, which here and there gets rather prominent, he will find the history intereating enough. The lover has won his point, and Winnie is married by the middle of the second volume. There is therefore quite an after-history, which, as may be sup- posed from the character of her husband, is not the least interest- ing in the book. And here Mrs. Simpson shows her ability, for we follow Winnie's history all through the third volume with quite as much zest as when we were reading of her love, suspense, and agonies. What this later history is, it would not be fair to tell. All we will say is that it is worth reading, as, indeed, the- book is altogether. If we except a little too free use of French phrases, not always apt or elegant, the style, too, is fairly good, and we carry away the impression that the author has powers. which are capable of producing books of a decidedly high order. This book is itself much above the average of the usual library, novel.
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