Dedication
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO MY SON CYRIL, AND TO Mrs ALAN BATTEN IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF ALL THAT IT OWES
TO HER GENEROUS HELP AND INTEREST.
M. D.
AUTHOR’S NOTE.
Book I
“If we impinge, never so lightly, on the life of a fellow-mortal, the touch of our personality, like the ripple of a stone cast into a pond, widens and widens, in unending circles, through the æons, till the far-off gods themselves cannot tell where action ceases.”
—Kipling.