Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/199

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prostitution of the marriage sacrament to commercial bargains, the infidelity, in thought and intention, though not in deed, of Lady Sibyl Elton, are stripped of their pretty dressings and shown in their detestable reality. "The acts of selfishness in man," Mr. Haweis added, "are exhibited in the person of Geoffrey Tempest in a garb that repels and with results that horrify; and the pure influence of Mavis Clare is shown on the other side of the picture, bright and attractive, the spirit of peace, contentment, and love in a glorious and glorified conquest of the spirit of evil."

Miss Corelli has suffered in a peculiar way from the deficiencies of the law of copyright which allows perfect protection to a mechanical patent, but which gives an author no adequate protection over rights such as the dramatization of a book. "The Sorrows of Satan," as everybody knows, was dramatized, and this is how it came about: In the year of the publication of "The Sorrows of Satan," 1895, Mr. George Eric Mackay introduced to his stepsister a lady of his acquaintance, a sculptress, who, so he said, was anxious to make a study of his head. This lady, in her turn, introduced Captain Woodgate, who expressed his enthusiastic admiration for "The Sorrows of Satan" to Miss Corelli, and said it would make a very fine