Transcriber's Notes: 1. Page scan source: Google Books (https://books.google.com/books?id=2HRo7SbNiJoC) COLLECTION OF ANCIENT AND MODERN BRITISH NOVELS AND ROMANCES. VOL. CXLVII. --------------- THE DESULTORY MAN. THE DESULTORY MAN. BY THE AUTHOR OF "RICHELIEU," "THE GYPSY," ETC. PARIS: BAUDRY'S EUROPEAN LIBRARY, RUE DU COQ ST. HONORE. SOLD ALSO BY AMYOT, RUE DE LA PAIX; TRUCHY, BOULEVARD DES ITALIENS; THEOPHILE BARROIS, JUN., RUE RICHELIEU; LIBRAIRIE DES ETRANGERS, RUE NEUVE SAINT AUGUSTIN. ---------- 1836 ------------------------------ PRINTED BY A. BELIN, 55, RUE STE. ANNE. DEDICATION. TO MISS M. L. BOYLE. --------------- MY DEAR MISS BOYLE, I dedicate to you a work, the greater part of which was written many years ago, and long before I had the slightest intention of submitting anything I wrote to public criticism. It was intended originally for the amusement of some of my personal friends; but many of the papers got beyond that limited circle, and some I published myself anonymously in various periodicals [1]. Those which were so published, received from persons whom I believed to be competent judges, so much praise that I determined to attempt a longer and more laboured composition, and to strive without concealment for the approbation of the public. Many of my friends attempted to dissuade me from so doing; and, while they assured me that they doubted not my capability of acquitting myself well, endeavoured to make me look upon literary efforts in a light in which such ennobling pursuits could never appear to my eyes. --------------- [Footnote 1: N.B.--Many more of the tales contained in these volumes have since been published in periodicals, and I believe I may say without presumption that they have been uniformly favourably received, though the author's name was withheld. Thus, as near as possible, two-thirds of the work have been already before the public.] ---------------