R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

64 Walter de la Marethough he may be, is in a position which he realises toolate is hideously weak. For owing to his father-in-law'ssagacity in tying up Hermione's money, her worldlygoods were only on sufferance his. For this reason,perhaps, he addresses her as 'My wife', or 'My Ladyhood'.When he wished to amuse her in the evenings,' he told her some facts of natural history'. Robbed atlength of his daughter, of his influence, of his agnosticworking-men, and even his bank account, he bows hishead and retires.His enemy, Mr Lascelles, is a sort of hieratic volcano,gaunt, frigid, capped with snow, yet menacingly eloquentof the suppressed and awful fires within. One of his flock,after an hysterical outburst at a harvest festival, diesof his dark influence. He secures most of Hermione'smoney, though she herself returns and is reconciled atlast to poor Richard on his death-bed.The effect of the story is oddly and garishly unreal; abright hard theatrical daylight dwells on the scene; andboth men are little more than waxworks. Yet its author'sviolent prejudices, though apparent, are ingeniouslyscreened. Quite apart from Mr Lascelles, she is no friendof man, as such; nor, being one herself, of strongmindedwomen neither. The cleverest woman in her storyis easily a match, in both senses, for the vicar, but evenshe has 'the curiosity of her sex'—in relation to octogeneticevolution. 'Men', we are told, 'never know anythingof what goes on about them. It is only women whofind the truth.' 'As if, again, 'the cleverest man in theworld is not as helpless as a babe, when the right kind ofwoman, who knows how he ought to be managed, takeshim in hand.'A faint hope of refuge from this sad extremity springsup with Mr Lascelles' tragic suggestion: '"So fewwomen understand the deeper thoughts of men. Some