THE MASQUERADER.

By Katherine Cecil Thurston.

Grasp and constructive ability are the two attributes of genius or of talent absolutely necessary to a novelist. When Katherine Cecil Thurston grasped the results that bound together those two incidents of January twenty-third, incidents so widely different in character, she created novelistic material. To this material she applied the same constructive ability, but maturer, that she evidenced in “The Circle.” And from the first statement in her book, that these incidents were bound by results, the reader’s interest does not flag till the last phase of the complicated result is clearly given, as it is in the final statement of the final chapter. Nor then, for it is a book to hold after it is closed, while the mind reverts to its scenes and its interest in pleasant retrospect.

Self-accusation may follow analysis of the book, for, after all, nothing is actually acquired in the reading. The aggressive, acquisitive attitude of Russia, which is the one historical episode of the novel, has been made so much clearer and so much more forcible in the last twelve months than a mere statement or even a masterful speech can make it that the book is not worth reading for this episode.

To repeat, it is the situation that grew out of the chance meeting in the fog, the interchanging of identities, that holds the interest so absorbingly. This contrast of similarity, if the paradoxical phrase is pardonable, is dramatic in intensity that grows, and when Eve, the alienated wife of Chilcote tentatively accepts Loder, the substitute, the masquerader, this intensity presents a new aspect that quite absorbs all others—political, social, even practical. From that moment the interest centers in the final outcome when she will discover or be told of the substitution. And because of this interest, which lasts even after the book is read, the inconsistency of the situation is forgiven and the impossible accepted as possible.

Reason rejects the position but charm is a matter of the emotions and the charm of “The Masquerader” is such as to put the emotions in the ascendency. It is sufficient to have carried the book to almost twice the popularity of any other recent book and to have kept it there for two months—quite a period in the life of an ephemeral novel. It is sufficient to have kept men at the library lamp late at night and to force itself in upon business through the next and succeeding days. And it has made women break the silence of bridge and whist, even where it has not kept them from the classes altogether.

The inconsistency of the situation is the only inconsistency of the book. The characters are convincing and stand out in flesh and blood.

The palest of these is Lillian, Lady Astrupp, but the paleness is not one of portrayal. It is the paleness of individuality shown in terms to suit the character, just as Fraide’s power and ruggedness is shown in blunt, abrupt allusions and dismissals.

For Chilcote there is only sympathy that deepens into pity mixed with disgust, the sympathy and pity begotten by the spectacle of a man under the power of a habit that has come to be his master.

There is resentment towards Loder for assuming another man’s name rather than for doing another man’s work, which was his only opportunity. To create is to prove one’s kinship to God, and the instinctive feeling is that no strong man would create for another man’s credit. Respect for Loder would have been aroused had he finally made public the masquerade, at all costs; but had he done this the climax of the situation would have been ruined.

Neither is Eve’s attitude in the climax inconsistent. Pride is the dominating characteristic of this woman, who excites admiration in every situation where circumstances place her. If it governed her through years of unhappiness it would be inconsistent to expect her to yield it and happiness together for a convention, though it were the divinest convention of life.

James Hunt Cook.

GOV. BOB TAYLOR
Who has long been identified with the platform of the South and whose tours have recently been extended throughout the United States.
Governor Taylor’s new lecture for the coming season will be “The Funny Side of Politics.”

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

  1. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
  2. Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.