Rechauffes are proverbially dangerous, but everyone runs into them
sooner or later, and the world has done me the kindness so often to
inquire after my first crude attempt, that after it has lain for many
years 'out of print,' I have ventured to launch it once more--
imperfections and all--though it is guilty of the error of pointing
rather to a transient phase of difficulty than to a general
principle. The wheels of this world go so quickly round, that I have
lived to see that it would have been wiser in the clergyman to have
directed rather than obstructed the so-called 'march of intellect.'
I have lived also to be somewhat ashamed of the exuberant outpouring
of historical allusions, which, however, were perfectly natural among
the set of girls from whom my experience was taken: but these
defects, as well as the more serious one of tyrannical aversion to
vulgarity, are too inherent in this tale to be removed, and the real
lesson intended to be conveyed, of obedience and sincerity, of course
remains unchanged.

The later story was a rather hasty attempt to parody the modern
sensation novel, as Northanger Abbey did the Radclyffe school, but it
makes the mistake of having too real a mystery. However, such as
they are, the two stories go forth in company, trusting that they may
not prove too utterly wearisome to be brought forward this second
time.

May 9th, 1872,