APOLOGETIC.
Reading edition
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THIS tale, such as it is, has one merit. It is a study of manners, mainly made on the spot, not evolved from the shelves of the British Museum. There is in it, at least, a crude attempt at photography, a process in which sunlight and air have some part, and, therefore, liker to nature than the adumbrations of the reading-room. The localities are faithfully drawn, the persons are not dolls with stuffing of sawdust, but human animals who might have lived—and, mayhap, did live. If the volume does not kill an hour, the writer is murderer only in thought.
TO MY FRIEND, COLONEL THE BARON CRAIGNISH, EQUERRY TO HIS HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA, This Little Book, IN TARDY THANK-OFFERING FOR THAT LARGE LEG OF MUTTON.
CONTENTS
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CHAPTER PAGE
I.A HOUSELESS DOG1
II.A CRUSH AT THE MORGUE8
III.LE VRAI N'EST PAS TOUJOURS VRAISEMBLABLE20
IV.THE SONG-BIRD'S NEST30
V.NAPOLEONIC IDEAS40
VI.THE OLD BONAPARTIST'S STORY52
VII.FRIEZECOAT AT HOME65
VIII.POPPING THE QUESTION75
IX.A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE85
X.'LA JEUNE FRANCE'96
XI.THE BONE OF CONTENTION104
XII.ORANGE BLOSSOMS121
XIII.THE HONEYMOON TRIP128
XIV.VANITAS VANITATUM139
XV.THE FIFTH OF MAY, 1870152