inst Vernon Whitford. The little in love with Mr. Rochester would red any one of these gentlemen ir Willoughby!) to his rival; but he event would have proved her ainly the wisdom of the ladies' never doubtful to Meredith himdier and the aristocrat cannot enthey are put to by the sympathetic penchant for the enfranchised n for Lord Ormont to accede to te for publicity; vain for Lord o become the humble wooer of ne: each has previously been conde. in earlier day, no woman would at a man who was not proud, even, a little too proud. Pride, cifer fell, was the chief hall-mark eman. Moreover, in that earlier did not expect their heroes to thing to them: a certain amount a measure of silence, was also one [98] Guilbert! Heroes, once to spurn anyone ways of aristocr Guilbert! Heroes, once, were always disdaining speak, and spurning their foes. Nowadays, hero disdains to speak, and no hero vent to spurn anyone-least of all, his foes. H humble of heart and very loquacious. M Humphry Ward has inherited from Geo Eliot; and the latest heroes of Mr. G worthy and Mr. Hewlett, for example, are children of Vernon Whitford, Matey Weybu and Owain Wythan (of whom it is not plicitly written that they had any other They are humanitarian and democratic; t are ignorant of hatred; they are inclined think the ill-born necessarily better than well-born; and they are quite sure that won are superior to men. True, Mr. Galswor always seems to be looking backward; he ne forgets the ancient tradition that he is c bating. His young aristocrats who eschew ways of aristocracy are unhappy, and virtu their case is "its only reward." Perhaps t is why his novels always leave us with medicinal taste of inconclusion in our mou e Eyre, or Catherine Earnshaw, Bennett, have looked at with eyes nic charm." The phrase is out. pect, is responsible for the tradilasted so long, and is now being y to pieces. Milton made Satan d our good Protestant novelists ne followed his lead, in that they lightful men some of the Satanic they were and scornfully silent, ecalled; and conventional to the "Conventional," that is, in the by which it is not meant that as were unconvincing, or that, as -er offended Mrs. Grundy. They onal in that they followed a conat they were, to a large extent, ney were jealous of their honor, t vindicable by the duel; they had E good women were better than pedigree in human beings was as pedigree in animals; and though = quixotic on occasion, they were c pour deux sous. The barmaid [100] a tell us, rightly Let me not tell us, rightly; but not so long ago there still something more repellent to the fen imagination about the man who chose not know, than about the man who chose not abstain. I do not mean that we were suppo always to be looking for a Tom Jones o Roderick Random-we might be looking a Sir Charles Grandison, no less; but at le when we found our hero, we expected to him wiser than we. Nowadays, a girl rat likes to give a man points-and often (in tion, at least) has to. Meredith railed aga the "veiled virginal doll" as heroine. W our heroines now are never veiled virg dolls; but sometimes our heroes are. Lanc has gone out, and Galahad has come in suspect that there is a literary law of comp sation, and that, Ibsen and Strindberg to contrary notwithstanding, there has to b veiled virginal doll somewhere in a really ing romance. Perhaps it is fair that the ster sex should have its turn at guarding ideals the hearthstone, while women make the gr tour. Let me not be misunderstood. I am many at sea ny men, at least seen the towns and the en, and their morals were the less upset by a conventional assault Does any one chance to remember, Theron Ware, led to his "damnafirst experience of a Chopin nocvould have taken more than a urne to make any of our seasoned ɔmething that he did not wish to. something of society, and ergo of ey had experienced, directly or human romance; and they had . Nowadays, they are apt to know ching-to begin with-of society, romance, except what may be got new books on sociology; and they elves on knowing no history. Hiss eternal stresses and selections, is ot aristocratic, and our heroes nowbe democratic or they die. It is an lete faith in the superiority of the s-the swing of the pendulum, no [102] 11 your have been born have the wit to sense of vice-co not have conde |