Chapter II: Preface

MY DEAR READER,—This story is not to be a novel, as the world understands the word; and we tell you so beforehand, lest you be in ill-humor by not finding what you expected. For if you have been told that your dinner is to be salmon and green peas, and made up your mind to that bill of fare, and then, on coming to the table, find that it is beefsteak and tomatoes, you may be out of sorts; _not_ because beefsteak and tomatoes are not respectable viands, but because they are not what you have made up your mind to enjoy.

Now, a novel, in our days, is a three-story affair,—a complicated, complex, multiform composition, requiring no end of scenery and _dramatis personæ_, and plot and plan, together with trap-doors, pit-falls, wonderful escapes and thrilling dangers; and the scenes transport one all over the earth,—to England, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, and Kamtschatka. But this is a little commonplace history, all about one man and one woman, living straight along in one little prosaic town in New England. It is, moreover, a story with a moral; and for fear that you shouldn’t find out exactly what the moral is, we shall adopt the plan of the painter who wrote under his pictures, “This is a bear,” and “This is a turtle-dove.” We shall tell you in the proper time succinctly just what the moral is, and send you off edified as if you had been hearing a sermon. So please to call this little sketch a parable, and wait for the exposition thereof.

CONTENTS.

CHAP. PAGE
I. FALLING IN LOVE 1
II. WHAT SHE THINKS OF IT 19
III. THE SISTER 31
IV. PREPARATION FOR MARRIAGE 39
V. WEDDING, AND WEDDING-TRIP 56
VI. HONEY-MOON, AND AFTER 63
VII. WILL SHE LIKE IT? 74
VIII. SPINDLEWOOD 86
IX. A CRISIS 92
X. CHANGES 104
XI. NEWPORT; OR, THE PARADISE OF NOTHING TO DO 112
XII. HOME À LA POMPADOUR 126
XIII. JOHN’S BIRTHDAY 137
XIV. A GREAT MORAL CONFLICT 152
XV. THE FOLLINGSBEES ARRIVE 161
XVI. MRS. JOHN SEYMOUR’S PARTY, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 181
XVII. AFTER THE BATTLE 197
XVIII. A BRICK TURNS UP 213
XIX. THE CASTLE OF INDOLENCE 228
XX. THE VAN ASTRACHANS 243
XXI. MRS. FOLLINGSBEE’S PARTY, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 250
XXII. THE SPIDER-WEB BROKEN 268
XXIII. COMMON-SENSE ARGUMENTS 281
XXIV. SENTIMENT _v._ SENSIBILITY 284
XXV. WEDDING BELLS 291
XXVI. MOTHERHOOD 297
XXVII. CHECKMATE 304
XXVIII. AFTER THE STORM 321
XXIX. THE NEW LILLIE 326

PINK AND WHITE TYRANNY.