Then, unlike men, women do not write out their impromptus beforehand and carefully hoard them for the publisher—and posterity!
And now, dear friends, a cordial au revoir.
My heartiest thanks to the women who have so generously allowed me to ransack their treasuries, filching here and there as I chose, always modestly declaiming against the existence of wit in what they had written.
To various publishers in New York and Boston, who have been most courteous and liberal, credit is given elsewhere.
Touched by the occasion, I "drop into" doggerel:
If you pronounce this book not funny,
And wish you hadn't spent your money,
There soon will be a general rumor
That you're no judge of Wit or Humor.
INDEX.
| PAGE. | |
| Introduction, | iii. |
| Contents, | v. |
| Dedication, | vii. |
| Argument, | ix. |
| Proem, | xi. |