Theos Alwyn, through whom Miss Corelli expounds lessons to all men—and women.
The story opens in the heart of the Caucasus Mountains, where a wild storm is gathering, and there is an early example of the descriptive delights with which the book is adorned. Miss Corelli is unique, not alone in her imaginings and in her treatment of them, but, too, in her powerful pictures of scenery. Here,
"in the lonely Caucasus heights, drear shadows
drooped and thickened above the Pass of Dariel—that
terrific gorge which like a mere thread seems
to hang between the toppling frost-bound heights
above, and black abysmal depths below. Clouds,
fringed ominously with lurid green and white,
drifted heavily yet swiftly across the jagged peaks
where, looming largely out of the mist, the snow-capped
crest of Mount Kazbek rose coldly white
against the darkness of the threatening sky. . . .
Night was approaching, though away to the west a
broad gash of crimson, a seeming wound in the
breast of heaven, showed where the sun had set an
hour since. Now and again the rising wind moaned
sobbingly through the tall and spectral pines that,
with knotted roots fast clenched in the reluctant
earth, clung tenaciously to their stony vantage
ground; and mingling with its wailing murmur,
there came a distant hoarse roaring as of tumbling
torrents, while at far-off intervals could be heard
the sweeping thud of an avalanche slipping from
point to point on its disastrous downward way.
Through the wreathing vapors the steep, bare sides
of the near mountains were pallidly visible, their
