a twice-told tale: I am (infinitely more Foreword gracious situation) usher to a fair admirer of the kindly Renaissance sage—sage and kindly in a day when benevolent wisdom was little known.
It is she who introduces him here—I but give her my hand across the threshold. With the generosity of her sex, she forgives him his poor opinion of it: indeed, after woman's pretty way of forgiving, she will not admit the offence. And she would fain that others should know and love him as she does, fain bring this "classic" within reach even of sister-students as yet too young to reach the shelf where stands, in many volumes, the entire wisdom of Montaigne.
EGERTON CASTLE.
September 1904.vii
