COPYRIGHT, 1928, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
QUINN & BODEN COMPANY, INC.
RAHWAY, N. J.
_To_
T. E.
IN THE ABSENCE
OF ANYTHING ELSE
_These stories were written at various dates previous to 1914, and
represent, together with those in the_ CELESTIAL OMNIBUS _volume, all
that I am likely to accomplish in a particular line. Much has happened
since; transport has been disorganised, frontiers rectified on the
map and in the spirit, and under the mass-shock of facts Fantasy has
tended to retreat or at all events to dig herself in. She can be
caught in the open here by those who care to catch her. She flits over
the scenes of Italian and English holidays, or wings her way with
even less justification towards the countries of the future. She or
he. For Fantasy, though often a lady, sometimes resembles a man, and
even functions for Hermes who used to do the smaller behests of the
gods--messenger, machine-breaker, and conductor of souls to a not too
terrible hereafter._
_One of the stories appeared in the_ ATLANTIC MONTHLY _and is reprinted
by courtesy of its editor; the rest, as far as I know, have never been
published in America._