Hrarveeat. By Stacy Aumonier. (Hutchinson. 7s. 6d. net.)
Mr. Stacy Aumonier's "Heartbeat"? has both truth and pity in jit, yet it fails to be more than a ever study f failure. This is because his w g is not as finely perfect as his irony. We are given the impression that. we are listening to a hastily told story, not that we are concerned in the unfolding of life. His method is anecdotal instead of creative He keeps us more aware of his decidedly sensa-} tional plot than of his keen perception of character. He does not move The story begins with a deceptive jerdinariness. We see a_beautifai young girl with a rich distinguished father and a mother who is only a romantic memory. The young girl has theatrical ambitions. The father is opposed to them. We suspect a happy _end-jing. But rbarai jg not satisfactorily charting. We are bafiie? at her _unattractiveness. Mr. jAumovier Iets* her sing songs and climb trees; but he never lets uz adore her. Later she is left much less money than she expects from ber father, quarrels with her aunts, land goes on the stage. She is moderately gifted, very sensible, completely selfish. A famous neter-manager falls in love with her and makes her his wife She inguishes her theatrical ambi-tical ambitions, and enjoys the solid advantages that wealth and her husband's success bestow upon her. Then she has the misfortune to fall in jove. Her husband kills her lover, and she is left to bring vp an illegitimate child.
Such is the material upon whicn Mr. Aumontier etches with his timony. No sentimentality survives his acid treatment. Barbara, bereft of husband and lover, spends her devotion on her baby {but her devotion does not keep Iwhisky bottles from accumulating in the larder. Her common-sense prompts her to let a rich woman adopt her child; later it prompts her to become a young business man's kept mistress; later still it; will prompt her, we gather, to become a respectable house-keeper but it is not strong enough to keep her from miming her life. This is an accurate portrait of the unsuccessful adventuress. It is the [sss base element, the clement that, jif not disinterested, is at least not jealculating, that overthrows the carefully raised strong-hold of her egotism. It is in Barbara's early cnviromment that Mr. Aumonier never makes us believe. Anti jmacassars rather than immemorial elms should have been about her in her infancy.
It is not, we fancy, Mr. Aumonier's ambition to be called a poetic writer, nor is wit the natural companion of his pen. what he has is an unflinching per.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.