rather than the fine seasons by preference. To be sure, one nook
therein is the retreat, at their country's expense, of other geniuses
from a distance; but their presence is hardly discoverable. Yet
perhaps it is as well that the artistic visitors do not come, or no
more would be heard of little freehold houses being bought and sold
there for a couple of hundred pounds--built of solid stone, and dating
from the sixteenth century and earlier, with mullions, copings, and
corbels complete. These transactions, by the way, are carried out and
covenanted, or were till lately, in the parish church, in the face of
the congregation, such being the ancient custom of the Isle.

As for the story itself, it may be worth while to remark that,
differing from all or most others of the series in that the interest
aimed at is of an ideal or subjective nature, and frankly imaginative,
verisimilitude in the sequence of events has been subordinated to the
said aim.

The first publication of this tale in an independent form was in 1897;
but it had appeared in the periodical press in 1892, under the title of
'The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved.' A few chapters of that experimental
issue were rewritten for the present and final form of the narrative.

T. H.
August 1912.



CONTENTS

PART FIRST -- A YOUNG MAN OF TWENTY.