MRS. CRADDOCK W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM BY W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM OF HUMAN BONDAGE THE MOON AND SIXPENCE MRS. CRADDOCK THE EXPLORER NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY MRS. CRADDOCK BY W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM AUTHOR OF “THE MOON AND SIXPENCE,” “OF HUMAN BONDAGE,” ETC. [Illustration: colophon] NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY _Printed in the United States of America_ EPISTLE DEDICATORY DEAR MISS LEY,--You will not consider it unflattering if I ask myself when exactly it was that I had the good fortune to make your acquaintance; for, though I am well aware the date is not far distant, I seem to have known you all my life. Was it really during the summer before last, at Naples? (I forget why you go habitually to winter resorts in the middle of August; the reasons you gave were ingenious but inconclusive--surely it is not to avoid your fellow-countrymen?) I was in the Gallery of Masterpieces, looking at the wonderful portrait-statue of Agrippina, when you, sitting beside me, asked some question. We began to talk--by the way, we never inquired if our respective families were desirable; you took my reputability for granted--and since then we have passed a good deal of time together; indeed, you have been seldom absent from my thoughts.