This volume contains all the complete stories, and several fragments of stories, which she wrote at the same time as, or after, those published in “The Garden Party and Other Stories.” Her earlier work, belonging to the period between her first book, “In a German Pension,” and her second, “Bliss and Other Stories,” will be published in one or two separate volumes in a collected edition of her work. Thus the continuity of her writing will be preserved, and an opportunity given to those who care for such things to follow the development of a talent now generally recognised as among the rarest of her generation. The title of this volume, “The Doves’ Nest and Other Stories,” is the title which Katherine Mansfield intended to give it. Whether the stories which compose it are those which she would finally have included in it, I cannot say. Her standard of self-criticism was continually changing, and changing always in the direction of a greater rigour. In writings which I thought perfect she, with her keener insight, discerned unworthy elements. Now that I am forced to depend upon my own sole judgment, it has seemed to me that there is not a scrap of her writing—not even the tiniest fragment—during this final period which does not bear the visible impress of her exquisite individuality and her creative power. On October 27, 1921, soon after she had finished and sent to her publisher the stories which compose “The Garden Party,” she wrote the following plan of her new book in her journal. (The letters L. and N. Z. mean that the stories were to have London or New Zealand for their setting.) STORIES FOR MY NEW BOOK N. Z. _Honesty_: The Doctor, Arnold Cullen and his wife Lydia, and Archie the friend. L. _Second Violin_: Alexander and his friend in the train. Spring ... wet lilac ... spouting rain. N. Z. _Six Years After_: A wife and husband on board a steamer. They see some one who reminds them. The cold buttons. L. _Lives Like Logs of Driftwood_: This wants to be a long, very well written story. The men are important, especially the lesser man. It wants a great deal of working ... newspaper office. N. Z. _A Weak Heart_: Roddie on his bike in the evening, with his hands in his pockets, _doing marvels_ by that dark tree at the corner of May Street. L. _Widowed_: Geraldine and Jimmie, a house overlooking Sloane Street and Square. Wearing those buds at her breast. “Married or not married” ... From autumn to spring. N. Z. _Our Maude_: Husban͜d ͜and͟ wi͜fe p͟la͜y du͟ets:͜ _A͟nd_ ͜a _o͟ne_ a͟ _two_ ͟a _three_ a _one_ a _two three one_! His white waistcoats. Wifeling and Mahub! What a girl you are! N. Z. _At Karori_: The little lamp. I seen it. And then they were silent. N. Z. _Aunt Anne_: Her life with the Tannhaüser overture.