THE duty which weighs so heavily on the conscience of Mrs. Meredith is one likely to appeal more forcibly to the American than to the European standard of honour. This lady appears on the scene as the guardian and sole relative of a young and lovely niece, and is introduced to the reader in an hotel at Boston where she has just arrived from Europe, as the patient of a Dr. Olney, staying there under similar circumstances. He quickly discovers that he is called upon to "minister to a mind diseased," and ends by being made the ...
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THE duty which weighs so heavily on the conscience of Mrs. Meredith is one likely to appeal more forcibly to the American than to the European standard of honour. This lady appears on the scene as the guardian and sole relative of a young and lovely niece, and is introduced to the reader in an hotel at Boston where she has just arrived from Europe, as the patient of a Dr. Olney, staying there under similar circumstances. He quickly discovers that he is called upon to "minister to a mind diseased," and ends by being made the confidant of the lady's mysterious trouble. The latter resolves itself into the dilemma in which she finds herself placed by the probability of her niece's marriage, involving the necessity of imparting to her or to her suitor or both, the crushing fact that despite her beauty and grace, her distinction of air, and purity, if not fairness of skin, she has in her veins the dark taint of negro blood. Her father, a physician practising in New Orleans, had married there a beautiful octoroon, and had on his death left his little girl to be brought up by his sister. The cruel kindness of keeping the child in ignorance of her origin has now to be expiated by the necessity of imparting it to her at an age when it comes as a terrible revelation, with the result of utterly estranging the girl from her aunt and driving her into a state of mind bordering on insanity. Her first impulse is to rush into the street and seek the quarter of the humble coloured people that she may accustom herself to the horror of feeling her kinship with them, and the additional revulsion of feeling with which she regards them under these circumstances is powerfully realised. She returns to the hotel to find her aunt dying of the effects of an overdose of her sleeping draught, and thus goes through a second crisis in her fate, ere she has had time to realise the first. The Dens ex machina is found in Dr. Olney, who has by this time fallen so thoroughly in love with her as to be willing to marry her with all her imperfections on her head. -The Dublin Review, Volume 110
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Cover scuffed. Pages clean but uncut. This book has hardback covers. Ex-library. With usual stamps and markings. in poor condition, suitable as a reading copy. No dust jacket. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item, 200grams, ISBN:
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PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
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