MUSLIN

By

GEORGE MOORE



_Originally published under the title of 'A Drama in Muslin,' 1886._

_New Edition, September, 1915._





PREFACE


My excuse for modifying the title of this book is, that _A Drama in
Muslin_ has long seemed to me to be the vulgar one among the titles of
my many books. But to change the title of a book that has been in
circulation, however precarious, for more than thirty years, is not
permissible, and that is why I rejected the many titles that rose up in
my mind while correcting the proofs of this new edition. In _Neophytes_,
_Débutantes_, and _The Baiting of Mrs. Barton_, readers would have
divined a new story, but the dropping out of the unimportant word
'drama' will not deceive the most casual follower of literature. The
single word 'muslin' is enough. _Mousseline_ would be more euphonious, a
fuller, richer word; and _Bal Blanc_, besides being more picturesque,