442
PARTISAN REVIEW
easily it let me down that when it came to the point one had still fine
fierce young men, in great numbers, for company, there being at the
worst so many such who hadn't flown to arms" (7, pp.
301-302).
His new orientation entailed a constructive step forward. In the
months which followed, James turned to the art of fiction. His first
published tale was, as has already been mentioned, "The Story of a
\'ear." Needless to say, the story should be read in its original form
to be fully appreciated. Unfortunately it is not easy of access since
it
was never reprinted, but a synopsis, however lacking artistically, may
convey certain essentials of the plot which are needed here.
John Ford has a second lieutenancy in the Northern Army and
is about to leave for the war. On a long walk just before his de–
parture he proposes marriage to the ward of
his
widowed mother. The
girl is named Elizabeth, or Lizzie, Crowe. She is a simple, pretty cre–
ature who is overjoyed at the prospect of marriage, but he exacts from
her the promise that if anything should happen to him in the war,
she will forget him and accept the love of another. He also cautions
tl1at, to avoid gossip, it may be better to keep the engagement a secret,
but he does not bind her on this point. On getting home the girl goes
to her room, while he tells his mother of the engagement. Mrs. Ford
is definitely against the match because she thinks Elizabeth shallow
and not good enough for him. (The author suggests that, having been
a good mother, Mrs. Ford would have liked for her son to choose a
woman on her own model.) He refuses to accept his mother's judg–
ment about the
girl,
but tries to avoid contention on his last night at
home. He asks his mother not to discuss the matter with Elizabeth.
After he is gone the two women say nothing about the engage–
ment to each other at any time, but the mother has her secret plans.
·when Elizabeth's first blush of excitement
is
over, she
is
sent by Mrs.
Ford on a visit to a friend
in
another city and there, decked out in
finery of her guardian's making, she soon wins another suitor-Bruce.
When she leaves for home, he comes to the train to see her off and
accidentally shows her the newspaper which contains the announce–
ment of Ford's having been severely wounded. Elizabeth is in great
conflict and now avoids Bruce, who would accompany her to the next
station. When Elizabeth reaches home, Mrs. Ford states her intention
of going to nurse her son-the very thing the girl had planned to do
herself; but Lizzie is strangely relieved by this shift of responsibility.
She stays at home, while Mrs. Ford goes off.
Elizabeth now dreams one night that she is walking with a tall
dark man who calls her wife. In the shadow of a tree they find an
