f reflected glory._
_R. W. C._

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PREFACE

THESE stories, mademoiselle, as your intuition tells you, are for
old-fashioned young people only; and should be read in the Golden Future,
some snowy evening by the fire after a home dinner a deux. Your
predestined husband, mademoiselle, is to extend his god-like figure upon
a sofa, with an ash-tray convenient. You are to do the reading, curled up
in the big velvet wing-chair, with the lamp at your left elbow and the
fender under your pretty feet. As for me, I shall venture to smile at you
now and then from the printed page--but with discretion, mademoiselle,
not inconveniencing your party a deux. For, to be rid of me, you have
merely to close this book.

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FOREWORD

The attention of the civilized world is, at present, concentrated upon
The Science of Eugenics. The author sincerely trusts that this important
contribution to the data now being so earnestly nosed out and gathered,
may aid his fellow students, scientifically, politically and
anthropologically.

* * * * *

Miris modis Di ludos faciunt hominibus!

R. W. C.

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"Facta canam; sed erunt qui me finxisse loquantur."--OVID.

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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE

"She looked at him almost insolently . . .
'Presently,' she said" _Frontispiece_
"'To begin,' he said, 'I came here fishing'" 46
"Only one fleet-footed young girl remained at his heels" 184
"'Pray, observe my unmatched eyes'" 246

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I

THE year had been, as everybody knows, a momentous and sinister year for
the masculine sex; marriages and births in the United States alone had
fallen off nearly eighty per cent.; the establishment of Suffragette
Unions in every city, town, and village of the country, their obedience
to the dictation of the Central National Female Franchise Federation; the
financial distress of the florists, caterers, milliners and modistes
incident to the almost total suspension of social functions throughout
the great cities of the land, threatened eventually to paralyse the
nation's business.

Clergymen were in a pitiable condition for lack of fees and tea