FICTION.
WATERSPRINGS.*
INTEREST attaches to Watersprings for two reasons. It is the Erst regular novel from the-pen of its industrious and accom- plished author, and it establishes something like a record in the annals of belles lettres. Since the days of the Kingsleys, Charles, Henry, and George, there has been no instance of three brothers simultaneously engaged in fiction, if indeed George Kingsley's part-authorship of South Sea Bubbles can he regarded as sufficient to justify his inclusion, in the ranks of the romancers. Here, however, there can be no doubt as to the simultaneous activity and popularity of three brothers, the eldest of whom now enters into formidable competition with his juniors in a department of letters in which they have already gained a considerable vogue.
: Though Mr. A. C. Benson has never written a regulation novel before, he has written.short stories and character-studies, and covered so much of the ground that he comes to hie task not as a raw tiro, but as a writer versed in all the requirements -of the art save perhaps dialogue. We are not altogether -surprised, then, to find that the conversations err somewhat on the side of length. In the case of the exuberant vicar, .this is in keeping with his character, but the didactic element is perhaps unduly prominent in the talk—excellent though it is —of the hero's aunt and monitress. But a genuine surprise, and a wholly agreeable one, is the pleasant vein of humour betrayed in the characterization. The voluble but warm- hearted vicar, Mr. Sandys, who is only saved from being a bore of the purest ray serene by his genuine humanity, is admirably done. Mr. Sandys was a terrific talker; "nothing that be said had the slightest distinction, . . . he had a taste far antithesis, but no grasp of synonyms. Every 'idea in his mind fell in halves, but the second clause was prodfiCed, not to express any new thought, but rather to echo the previous clause." He talked, in fact, like a bad leader-writer, and a con- versation with him was described by one of his victims as being like driving in a dog-cart over a ploughed field. The Waterspring4.. By Arthur Christopher Benson. London :aniit,h, Eldet and Co: Ps.]
culminating scene hr his Visit to his old University is thus refreshingly described:—
'That night Mr. Sandys finished up his princely progress by dining in Hill with the Fellows, and going to the Combination Room afterwards. He was not voluble, as Howard had expected. He was overcome with deference, and seized with a desire to bow in all directions at the smallest civility. He sat next to the Vice- Master, arid.Mr. Redmayne treated him to an exhibition of the driest frreworkS on record. Mr. Sandys assented to everything, and the number of times that he exclaimed True ! true! admir- ably said !' exceeded belief. He said to Howard afterwards that the unmixed wine of intellect had proved a potent beverage. One must drink it down,' he said, 'and trust to assimilating it later. It has been a glorious week for me, my dear Howard', thanks to you! Quite rejuvenating indeed I carry away with me a precious treasure of thought—just a few notes of suggestive trains of inquiry have been scribbled down, to be dealt with at leisure. But it is the atmosphere, the rarefied atmosphere of high thought, which has braced and invigorated me. It has entirely obliterated from my mind that odious escapade of Jack's—so judiciously handled! The kindness of these eminent men, these intellectual giants, is profoundly touching and inspiring. I must not indeed hope to trespass on it unduly. Your Master—what a model of self-effacing courtesy— your Vice-Master—what a fine, rugged, uncompromising nature; and the rest of your colleagues'—with a wave of his hand- ' what an impression of reserved and restrained force it all gives one ! It will often sustain me,' said the good Vicar in a burst of. confidence, in my simple labours to think of all this tide of unaffected intelleetuallffe ebbing and flowing so tranquilly and so systematically in old alma mater! The way in, which you have laid yourself out to entertain me is indeed gratifying. If there is a thin.. I reverence it is intellect, especially when it is framed in modesty and courtesy."
There is excellent comedy, again, in the portraits of Mr. Redmayne, the 'Vice-Master of Beaufort College, an incor- rigible reactionary, hiding a kind heart under a mask of cynicism ; of Monica Graves, a practical philanthropist with a caustic tongue; and of Jack Sandys, the vicar's son, a shrewd young Philistine who cannot endure sentiment, and is always thinking aloud with occasionally disconcerting results. If we lay special stress on this side of the book, it is because it reveals an unfamiliar aspect of Mr. Benson's talent. The main thread of the story is concerned with the education of Howard Kennedy, a bachelor don who had lived a life of unruffled, if uneventful, success till the age of forty. Everything had gone smoothly with him : he was popular, efficient, and -contented. But he had never loved or suffered, or been. confronted by any great emergency. He was fast becoming wedded to-routine when a spirit of unrest and dissatisfaction seized him, and, acting on the advice of his cousin Monica, he pays a visit to his aunt, a widowed chatelaine of great social gifts and penetration, whose invitations he had previously disregarded. There he is subjected to a variety of fresh influences, enlightening and perturbing. At first every- thing makes for his contentment. He is welcomed with unaffected cordiality by his aunt, who makes him her heir, and there is a general conspiracy to make much of him, to defer to his judgment, and appeal-to him for advice. But his sant,
though a saint of hospitality, is also not a little of the
maitresse femme. She draws him out, exposes his limita- tions, expounds her theory of life, and infects him with the discontent which she herself had outlived. Gradually Kennedy loses his donnish complacency ; be falls in love without knowing it, fights hard but ineffectually against his instincts when he recognises the truth, endures tortures Of
humiliation and jealousy, only to find in the end that the young lady was if anything more deeply in love with him than he with her. In short, he loves and suffers and is healed, and in the process regains his faith and self-respect. It is a curious and intimate study, in which humour, as we have seen,
has its part, but sentiment predominates, and the delights of academic bachelorhood, though described with full appre- ciation, are sbown to be as water unto wine when compared with the 'joys of domesticity, when
"Gentle thoughts and calm desires, Hearts in equal love combined, Kindle never-dying fires."
We wish, however, that Mr. Benson had been more frugal in the expression of the lady's servile adoration of her husband.
Previous page
