INTRODUCTION 



THE papers in this book were originally con 

 tributed to the New Tork Evening Post, where 

 they elicited a printed desire for their preserva 

 tion in book form. Written at intervals, with 

 very slight continuity of narrative, for weekly 

 readers, all of whom could hardly be expected 

 to follow them consecutively, they were neces 

 sarily repetitious and explanatory in spots, and 

 required rewriting and editing when collected 

 in book form for continuous reading. Those 

 papers therefore have been specially prepared 

 for this volume, new matter having been in 

 troduced and much that was explanatory to 

 weekly readers having been eliminated. 



The personages introduced are taken from life, 

 and are put down with a free hand as the writer 

 saw them at the time, one of them still coloured 

 by the fantasy she evoked. The sketches neces- 



