Oswald Langdon / or, Pierre and Paul Lanier. A Romance of 1894-1898

THE STAR! THE STAR! MOTHER!


Though to explain incurs a risk, the author accepts the hazard of a word in advance.
While the novelist's license has been so used that there is need neither to resent an innuendo nor to prove an alibi, yet, substantially, the incidents narrated occurred within the time stated, and nearly all the actors are still upon life's boards.
The conscientious tourist in search of that beautiful country-seat and wood-fringed lake is advised to defer his visit. Perhaps the exact locations are intended to be in doubt. Even that station might be hard to find in an English train schedule.
Geographical accuracy may not be always essential. One noted writer has told of infatuation for
An ounce of common, ugly, human dust,
and declared that—
.... Places are too much, Or else too little, for immortal man.
The reader of few or of many books may find reminders in these pages. The author hastens to confess echoings from bygone days, hintings of vagrant fancies, and whimsical reveries wherein appeared the vague evasive outlines of half-remembered things.