To Z. Mennell, Esq.

My dear Mennell,

It has been my fortune to see something of the practice of the art
of healing under widely different conditions, and I know none who
better represents the most humane and most exacting of all
professions than yourself. The good doctor of this story--the born
surgeon and healer, the ever young and alert, the self-forgetful,
the faithful friend, gifted with "that exquisite charity which can
forgive all things"--is studied from you.

It is one of the greatest pleasures of my life to inscribe your
name on this dedicatory page, and to subscribe myself,

Your sincere friend and grateful patient,

J. Maclaren Cobban.

London, November 1889.




Chapter I.

Julius Courtney.