A MATTER OF RIVALRY ........ OCTAVE THANET




PREFACE


There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.


Thus the poet--and poetry, of the old order at least, always waiting
upon great events, has found in the high-tide flotations of masterful
heroes to fortune themes most flatteringly responsive to its own high
tension.

The writer of fiction has no such afflatus, no such high pitch of
life, as to outward circumstance, in his representation of it, as
the poet has; and therefore his may seem to the academic critic the
lesser art--but it is nearer to the realities of common human existence.
He deals with plain men and women, and the un-majestic moments of their
lives.

"Life at High Tide"--the title selected for this little volume of
short stories, and having a real significance for each of them, which
the reader may find out for himself--does not reflect the poet's
meaning, and, least of all, its easy optimism. In every one of these
stories is presented a critical moment in one individual life--