The Autobiography of a Slander

Transcribed from the 1890 Longmans, Green, and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
by EDNA LYALL
author of ‘donovan’ ‘we two’ ‘in the golden days’ ‘knight errant’ etc.
Trust not to each accusing tongue , As most week persons do ; But still believe that story false Which ought not to be true Sheridan
NEW EDITION (thirty-ninth to forty-first thousand)
london longmans, green, and co. and new york: 15 east 16 th street 1890
All rights reserved
DEDICATED TO ALL WHO IT MAY CONCERN
At last the tea came up, and so With that our tongues began to go. Now in that house you’re sure of knowing The smallest scrap of news that’s going. We find it there the wisest way To take some care of what we say. Recreation . Jane Taylor.
I was born on the 2nd September, 1886, in a small, dull, country town. When I say the town was dull, I mean, of course, that the inhabitants were unenterprising, for in itself Muddleton was a picturesque place, and though it laboured under the usual disadvantage of a dearth of bachelors and a superfluity of spinsters, it might have been pleasant enough had it not been a favourite resort for my kith and kin.
My father has long enjoyed a world-wide notoriety; he is not, however, as a rule named in good society, though he habitually frequents it; and as I am led to believe that my autobiography will possibly be circulated by Mr. Mudie, and will lie about on drawing-room tables, I will merely mention that a most representation of my progenitor, under his nom de théatre , Mephistopheles, may be seen now in London, and I should recommend all who wish to understand his character to go to the Lyceum, though, between ourselves, he strongly disapproves of the whole performance.