Transcriber's Note:
Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.
There is no sorrow for the earnest soul
That looketh up to God in perfect faith.
TWENTY-FIFTH THOUSAND.
New York:
BUNCE & BROTHER, PUBLISHERS,
134 NASSAU STREET.
—
MDCCCLIV.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
MRS. ANN S. STEPHENS,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court, for the Southern District of New York.
Republished in London by Richard Bentley, through special arrangement
with the Author
W. H. TINSON,
STEREOTYPER,
24 Beckman Street.
——
Taws, Russell & Co., Printers,
26 Beekman and 18 Spruce St., N. Y.
To
MRS. LYDIA H. SIGOURNEY,
OF HARTFORD, CONN.,
THE MOST VALUED FRIEND THAT I HAVE,
AND ONE OF THE BEST WOMEN I EVER KNEW, THIS BOOK
Is Most Respectfully Dedicated.
ANN S. STEPHENS.
What shall I say in this Preface to my book? Shall I make the usualhalf-sincere, half-affected apology of haste and inexperience, withhints of improvement in future efforts? Indeed I cannot, for though thisvolume really is the first novel ever printed in book form under myname, its imperfections, whatever they are, arise from no inexperienceor undue haste, but from absolute lack of power to accomplish that whichI have undertaken. Nor is it probable that the points in which I havefailed here, would be very greatly improved were the same book to bewritten again.
I have endeavored to make this book a good one. If I have failed it isbecause the power has not been granted to me by the Source of all power,and for deficiency like this, the only admissible apology would be forhaving written at all. But excuses are out of place here. The book, withall its faults, is frankly surrendered to the public judgment, askingneither favoritism or forbearance, save that favoritism which dealsgently with unintentional error, and that forbearance which no Americanever withholds from a woman. Shall I say that this volume is launched onthe world with fear and trembling? That would express an ungrateful wantof faith in a class of readers who have generously sustained me throughyears of literary toil, and have nobly supported not only Peterson'sLadies' National Magazine now under my charge, but every periodical withwhich I have been connected. It would be ungrateful to the press that,without a single respectable exception, has always dealt generously byme, and would betray a weakness of character which I am not willing toacknowledge, for I have lived long enough to tremble at[Pg vi] nothing whichresults from an honest intention, and to fear nothing but deserveddisgrace—the death of beloved objects—or change in those affectionsthat no literary fame or misfortune can ever reach.
But it is not without emotions that I present this book to the public,grateful and sweet emotions