It has been asserted that unless I had actually been present at a public execution, I could not have written the chapter in which Sophia was at the Auxerre solemnity. I have not been present at a public execution, as the whole of my information about public executions was derived from a series of articles on them which I read in the Paris Matin. Mr. Frank Harris, discussing my book in "Vanity Fair," said it was clear that I had not seen an execution, (or words to that effect), and he proceeded to give his own description of an execution. It was a brief but terribly convincing bit of writing, quite characteristic and quite worthy of the author of "Montes the Matador" and of a man who has been almost everywhere and seen almost everything. I comprehended how far short I had fallen of the truth! I wrote to Mr. Frank Harris, regretting that his description had not been printed before I wrote mine, as I should assuredly have utilized it, and, of course, I admitted that I had never witnessed an execution. He simply replied: "Neither have I." This detail is worth preserving, for it is a reproof to that large body of readers, who, when a novelist has really carried conviction to them, assert off hand: "O, that must be autobiography!" ARNOLD BENNETT. CONTENTS BOOK I. MRS. BAINES I. THE SQUARE II. THE TOOTH III. A BATTLE IV. ELEPHANT V. THE TRAVELLER VI. ESCAPADE VII. A DEFEAT BOOK II. CONSTANCE I. REVOLUTION II. CHRISTMAS AND THE FUTURE III. CYRIL IV. CRIME V. ANOTHER CRIME VI. THE WIDOW VII. BRICKS AND MORTAR VIII. THE PROUDEST MOTHER BOOK III. SOPHIA I. THE ELOPEMENT II. SUPPER III. AN AMBITION SATISFIED IV. A CRISIS FOR GERALD V. FEVER VI. THE SIEGE VII. SUCCESS BOOK IV. WHAT LIFE IS I. FRENSHAM'S II. THE MEETING III. TOWARDS HOTEL LIFE IV. END OF SOPHIA V. END OF CONSTANCE BOOK I MRS. BAINES CHAPTER I THE SQUARE I