can make his responsibilities one with her own. René conjectures as to a rudimentary identity in man and woman with secondarily acquired variations, and he considers woman's obliviousness to delicate shades in experience as compelled by her dedication to a nobler and simpler aim. He cannot feel the horror of a biological argument to justify the self-aware being whose egotism is awake even as his own. René's wife, Linda Brock, and his mistress, Ann Pidduck, are both in unsuccessful revolt, but Ann's rebellion is complete, of the emotions as well as the mind, and there is a kind of dignity in her acceptance of defeat. Linda Brock is a cheat. Without a sincere respect for the established moralities she cannot forgo titles of nobility. She wants the safeguard of matrimony but will give no value received for it. Without suggesting in her that thing beyond analysis which vivifies Mrs. Fourmy, Cannan makes her a character study of arresting intricacy. While reading the book one decides, doubtless without intention on the part of the author, that woman's very triumphs are stolen from her for the good of the race, and if she wishes to assert her individuality it is necessary for her to do something monstrous. Man individualizes himself against Nature's background, but woman's accomplishment is inextricably woven in the tapestry. of the race and she can free herself only by stifling the opportunities which emotionally enrich her. Women envy men their irresponsibility in Nature's plan, their fearless enjoyment of the moment, and most tragic complexes in sex relations are subtle attenuations of this often subconscious resentment. Mr. Cannan, while himself refusing to believe it, heightens our conviction that this is true. He destroys our belief in woman's capacity for equality, but, as in all his books, exempts one female expressly to revive our faith during the last few pages. In this case it is Cathleen, a modern adaptation of the mediaeval virgin. René's senses are less deadened than his spirit, but the appeal of the coolly poised and plaintively aloof Cathleen is the usual appeal of immaturity to the jaded taste which hopes to enjoy vicariously some fresh experiences in disillusionment. Of course the book ends happily. Presumably it was because Cathleen and René did not marry that their life was so marvellously uncomplicated. Does Mr. Cannan really fancy that the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Fourmy, for instance, would have been altered by the technical absence of matrimony?
In two of Mr. Cannan's novels at least, Mendel and Mummery,
