"TO ROBERT CARTER, ESQ. Not the intrinsic merits of this story embolden me to inscribe it to you, my dear friend, but the fact that you, more than any other man, are responsible for its writing. Your advice and encouragement first led me to bookmaking; so it is only fair that you should partake of whatever obloquy (or honor) the practice may bring upon me. The ensuing pages may incline you to suspect their author of a repugnance to unvarnished truth; but, -without prejudice to Othello, -since varnish brings out in wood veins of beauty invisible before the application, why not also in the sober facts of life? When the transparent artifice has been penetrated, the familiar substance underneath will be greeted none the less kindly; nay, the observer will perhaps regard the disguise as an oblique compliment to his powers of insight, and his attention may thus be better secured than had the subject worn its every-day dress. Seriously, the most matter-of-fact life has moods when the light of romance seems to gild its ...]."