ANTE SCRIPTUM

This is the tale of Diana, the Gipsy, the Goddess, the Woman, one in
all and all in one and that one so wonderful, so elusive, so utterly
feminine that I, being but a man and no great student in the Sex, may,
in striving to set her before you in cold words, distort this dear
image out of all semblance and true proportion.

Here and now I would begin this book by telling of Diana as I remember
her, a young dryad vivid with life, treading the leafy ways, grey eyes
a-dream, kissed by sun and wind, filling the woodland with the glory
of her singing, out-carolling the birds.

I would fain show her to you in her swift angers and ineffable
tenderness, in her lofty pride and sweet humility, passionate with
life yet boldly virginal, fronting evil scornful and undismayed, with
eyes glittering bright as her "little _churi_" yet yielding
herself a willing sacrifice and meekly enduring for Friendship's sake.

With her should this book properly commence; but because I doubt my
pen (more especially at this so early stage) I will begin not with
Diana but with my aunt Julia, my uncle Jervas, my uncle George and my
painfully conscious self, trusting that, as this narrative progresses,