The Drunkard

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Drunkard, by Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull
GUY THORNE
AUTHOR OF WHEN IT WAS DARK, FIRST IT WAS ORDAINED, MADE IN HIS IMAGE, ETC., ETC.
New York STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY 1912
Copyright, 1911 BY STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY
Published January, 1912
DEDICATION
TO LOUIS TRACY, ESQUIRE
My Dear Louis :
It is more than a year ago now that I asked you to accept the dedication of this story. It was on an evening when I was staying with you at your Yorkshire house and we had just come in from shooting.
But I discussed the tale with you long before that. It was either—as well as I can remember—at my place in the Isle of Wight, or when we were all together in the Italian Alps. I like to think that it was at that time I first asked your opinion and advice about this book upon which I have laboured so long.
One night comes back to me very vividly—yes, that surely was the night. Dinner was over. We were sitting in front of the brilliantly lit hotel with coffee and cigarettes. You had met all my kind Italian friends. Our wives were sitting together at one little table with Signora Maerdi and Madame Riva Monico—to whom be greeting! My father was at ours, and happy as a boy for all his white beard and skull-cap of black velvet.