However, indulgent critics will please not saddle my unoffending head with the responsibility, the fact being that I was vehemently advised that, without some meretricious padding of this sort, my Romance would not be of sufficient robustness to produce a boom.
But should "A Bayard from Bengal" unfortunately fail to render the Thames combustible, I should rather attribute the cause to its having been unwisely diluted with such milk and watery material as the Parables of Piljosh.
So, leaving the decision to the impartial and unanimous verdict of popular approval, I subscribe myself,
The Reader's very obsequious and palpitating Servant,
Hurry Bungsho Jabberjee, B.A., etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.
PRINTED BY
TURNBULL AND SPEARS,
EDINBURGH
Author's Notes on Illustrations:
AUTHOR'S NOTE ON ILLUSTRATION No. I.
(Frontispiece).
Had Mr Bernadhur Pahtridhji taken the very ordinary precaution to consult myself upon the etiquettes proscribed by smart society, I should infallibly have saved him from so shocking an exhibition of his ignorance.