There is nothing more to it: I no more back the political opinions of General Campion than those of Sylvia Tietjens, who considered that the World War was just an excuse for male agapemones; I no more accept responsibility for the inaccuracies of Tietjens quoting King's Regulations than for the inaccuracies of the general in quoting _Henry V_. I was roundly taken to task by the only English critic whose review of my last book I read--after he had _horribly_ misrepresented the plot of the work at a crucial point--for _my_ inaccuracy in stating that poor Roger Casement was shot. As a matter of fact, I had been struck by the fact that a lady with whom I had been discussing Casement twice deliberately referred to the shooting of Casement, and stated that she did so because she could not bear to think that we had hanged him. In making therefore a lady--who had loved Casement--refer to his execution in the book in question, I let her say that Casement was shot. . . . Indeed, I should prefer to think that he had been shot, myself. . . . Or still more to think that we had allowed him to escape, or commit suicide, or be imprisoned during His Majesty's pleasure. . . . The critic preferred to rub in the hanging. It is a matter of relative patriotism. Whilst we are chipping, I may as well say that I have been informed that a lively controversy has raged over the same work in the United States, a New York critic having stated that I was a disappointed man intent on giving a lurid picture of present-day matrimonial conditions in England. I hope I am no rabid patriot, but I pray to be preserved from the aspiration of painting any nation's lurid matrimonial conditions. The peculiar ones adumbrated in _Some Do Not_ were suggested by the fate of a poor fellow living in a place in the south of France in which I happened to be stopping when I began the book. His misfortunes were much those of my central character, but he drank himself to death, it was said deliberately, after he had taken his wife back. He came from Philadelphia. So, in remembrance of our joint labours and conspiracies, and in token of my admiration for your beautiful achievements in another art, I subscribe myself, my dear Bird, Your humble, obedient and obliged F. M. F. PARIS, 31 _October_, '24-- GUERMANTES, 25 _May_, '25. CONTENTS PART I CHAPTER I CHAPTER II CHAPTER III CHAPTER IV PART II CHAPTER I CHAPTER II PART III CHAPTER I CHAPTER II PART I CHAPTER I