TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book. THIS EDITION IS LIMITED TO ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIVE COPIES, OF WHICH THIS IS NO.—— WIND OF DESTINY WIND OF DESTINY BY SARA LINDSAY COLEMAN [Illustration] GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1916 _Copyright, 1916, by_ DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY _All rights reserved, including that of translation into foreign languages, including the Scandinavian_ FOREWORD The letters in this story are real letters. I know this because they were written to me by the man the world knows as O. Henry, author, and only as the author. Not half a dozen people knew the real Sydney Porter, and the man was greater than the author. There are other letters which are mine own, and no other eyes shall see them. But the letters in this book were not written to me as a woman, but rather to the little girl of his memory who lived next door to him in the street of Yesterday. The background for the letters is pure fiction. Maybe I have let more of myself creep into this tale than I had planned. If this be true, the reason is that my whole thought centred upon revealing Sydney Porter to the lovers of O. HENRY. SARA LINDSAY COLEMAN. WIND OF DESTINY WIND OF DESTINY _August 5th. Saturday Morning._ I think from the day Dicky left us I have been waiting with bated breath for this letter. Ghost of our great, great, great-grandfather who lies in the old cemetery at Lexington, Virginia! Dicky has been answering a “Personal” in the New York _Herald_.