INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR XXI. 



forward to a life of leisure, in which, freed from all 

 cares of business, he would devote himself to the 

 humane work and the literary work which he was 

 wont to regard as his chief concerns in life. But 

 the end came suddenly, in the fulness of his life 

 and strength, leaving many purposes unfulfilled and 

 much work unfinished. The habit of writing, formed 

 in his journalistic days, never left him, and he had 

 numerous plans for literary tasks which he never con- 

 summated. Among the mass of papers left at his 

 death were found, besides the ten short stories here 

 presented, an unfinished novel, several plays and light 

 operas, and various fragmentary things. But of them 

 all, the best, as being most characteristic and expres- 

 sive of the purposes and interests of his life, are the 

 stories or sketches presented in this volume, to which 

 it is my sad privilege, as an old friend and literary 

 associate of the author, to prefix this brief memoir 

 and appreciation. 



FRANCIS FISHER BROWNE. 



Chicago, August, 1900. 



