FICTION.
AT 111.E1 DOOR OF THE GATE!
WE had recently occasion to comment on Mr. Forrest Reid'e excellent work as a critic. He now claims our attention, not for the first time, as a writer of fiction which both in manner and matter is far removed from the ordinary run. At the Door of the Gate is an interesting, even an engrossing, story, and the worst that can be said against it is that it does not minister to exhilaration of mind, though touches of humour are not lacking. Mr. Forrest Reid is not a pessimist. He takes a serious view of life, but he avoids the extreme of inhuman detachment as well as that of rose-coloured senti- ment. He enlists our sympathy for his hero, he brings out the peculiar difficulties of his position, but he does not extenuate his failings and limitations. Heredity and environment play a large part in the story, the scene of which is laid in Protestant Ulster, in the neighbourhood of Belfast. Richard Seawright is the younger son of a genial ne'er-do-weel, who ended his life under a cloud, and of a dour, honest, narrow-minded, hard. working Ulsterwoman who, after her husband's death, manages a post office and lending library on the outskirts of a genteel suburb. From his father Richard inherits good looks and physical charm: his seriousness and reserve come from the mother. But, whether as a blend of the two strains or as the expression of the new and superadded element which dis. tinguishes the individual from his progenitors, Richard had within him a core of aspiration, which set him apart from his • 41 the Door of the Gate. By Iorrest Reid. London; Edward Arnold. 1.68.1.
fellows. Poetry and mysticism struggled in him for expression from his early days, but met with no encouragement in his home circle, and remained for the most part inarticulate. When they did find utterance, he only disconcerted and almost shocked his mother, who lavished her affection on the elder son, Martin, a handsome hypocrite. Richard reads his brother like a book, and the injustice of his mother's prefer ence works on his brooding nature and embitters it with chronic jealousy. A sense of duty and filial obedience deter him from breaking away and seeking his fortune elsewhere. He accepts his mother's ruling that he should earn a livelihood in business, and on leaving school obtains employment with a tea-merchant, wins the confidence of his employers, and makes steady progress, devoting his leisure to study. But the development of his character is illustrated chiefly by his relations with women. Of his mother mention has already been made. Grace Mallow, who was adopted by Mrs. Sea- wright and lives with the family, comes nearest to being his true affinity. She has marked musical gifts ; she is clever end intelligent, and, though her practical outlook on life and her ironical comments are a constant source of exasperation, she understands and sympathizes with his angular honesty, and loves him. But Richard fails to act on the old maxim :
n i.idXtirTa 7aµeiv rrrts cr‘nv ty7vOt valet.
He falls a victim to a pretty face, and marries a girl all gentle- ness and sweetness, but without a mind. The progress of his courtship is not smooth, for his diffidence is neutralized by moments of tactless candour which lead to temporary estrange- ments, and the marriage is precipitated by a guiltless accident for which neither was to blame. Richard's repentance is not made at leisure; it begins before his honeymoon is ended, and the tragic sequel, implicit in the natures of husband and wife, hurries on with swift, inevitable steps. When we say "inevitable," however, we feel it needful to use a slight reservation, for we cannot altogether acquit Mr. Forrest Reid of having weighted the dice against the unlucky Richard by way of enhancing the catastrophe. It was bad enough to allow the odious Martin to poison Rose's mind against her husband, and to inflame Richard's well-founded distrust of his brother, but in the disastrous issue of their last meeting Richard's bad luck becomes monstrous and unnatural. The fact that an extremely impressive use is made of this last calamity, by opening the door of renunciation to Richard's ineffectual strivings after a higher life, cannot blind us to the artificial contrivance of the incident which leads to that resolve.
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