TO HER MAJESTY ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ROUMANIA.

December, 188-

I am almost too old to undertake this book, for a sort of night is
falling about me; where shall I find the words vital and young enough
for the task?

To-morrow, at sea, I will commence it; at least I will endeavor to put
into it all that was best of myself at a time when as yet there was
nothing very bad.

So that romantic love may find no place in it, except in the illusory
form of a vision, I will end it at an early age.

And to the sovereign lady whose suggestion it was that I write it, I
offer it as a humble token of my respect and admiration.

PIERRE LOTI.





THE STORY OF A CHILD.



CHAPTER I.