viii Preface.
talking with friends. I hope not to err too much the other way, and, in throwing off the usual rules of authorship, to gain by amusing and interesting those who read me, what I may lose in style. The British reading public, nay, all the world, likes personal detail. I trust, therefore, that they will excuse the incessant Ego of one who was only allowed to take a part in the events which happened during our residence in Syria; and if this book proves to be the humble instrument that launches and prospers any one of my philanthropic projects for the Land of my heart, I shall have lived for some good purpose, and when I lie upon my death-bed I shall not be haunted by that nightmare thought—“ I have never been of any use.”
Isabel Burton.
14, Montagu Place,
Montagu Square, London.
