Chapter D: C. C

_The Glimpses of the Moon._ By EDITH WHARTON. (D. Appleton & Company.)

At the moment of writing this review, Mrs. Wharton’s publishers announce that the public continues to inconsiderately overtax and distress them, by calling for “Glimpses of the Moon” at the rate of three thousand copies a day. This, of course, is quite as it should be. But we still venture to hope that at least one hundred persons per day will join us in a courageous effort to forget all about it, and await Mrs. Wharton’s next book, just as if nothing had happened. It is evidently too much to hope for another “Age of Innocence” at once—but one is only too glad to wait for it.

As for the immensely more important two thousand nine hundred, they will find that they have purchased three hundred and sixty-four pages of what looks like good solid reading matter, only to find it so adroitly written that it slips away at almost a single sitting, and forces one to decide what to read next.

Should they decide to turn out the light and pull up the covers, however, they may do so secure in the knowledge that Susy and her Nick at last realize that “this is love! This must be love!”, and determined to call off the divorce that has been threatening all through the book. It is all very splendid, for Nick could have married the Hicks millions, and Susy might have been Lady Altringham five minutes after the decree was issued. Lest anyone should be unduly stampeded by this outline of the plot, we might mention that Mrs. Wharton has carefully avoided “the tiny garments”, and that it is while mothering the children of a stray acquaintance that she, together with Nick, finally glimpses the moon, which has been decidedly under a cloud during most of the book.