Copyright, 1922,
By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.
Printed in U.S.A.
VAIL-BALLOU COMPANY
Binghamton and New York
To
ALFRED SUTRO
I dedicate to you this slight tribute to the memory of our friend. You were the luckier, in knowing him the longer. I shall be more than content if you find, in reading this book, as I found in reading his letters again, that he has returned to us even for a moment and that a whim of his language or an echo of his laughter has recreated the triple alliance which he founded.
I trust also you may be long without finding out the devil that there is in a bereavement. After love it is the one great surprise that life preserves for us. Now I don’t think I can be astonished any more.
Robert Louis Stevenson: Letters.