It is many years since we first met at the house of one whom we both
loved, whose memory we both cherish. It was that friend’s hope that
you and I should become, and should remain friends; and that the hope
has been realised has given me many happy hours--sometimes in your
company as my gracious hostess, sometimes, scarcely less closely in
your company, as a reader of your delightful and beautiful stories.
Were your gallant General--I remember how proud he was of those
stories--alive to-day, I should have asked to be allowed to dedicate
this book to the two of you. Now that--alas for the England that he
so faithfully loved, so nobly served--he is with us no more, may I
inscribe it to yourself and to his honoured memory?
Yours ever sincerely,
COULSON KERNAHAN.