The stories in this volume have previously appeared in literary periodicals and magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. The author, Frances Towers, died on New Year’s Day 1948. One of her favourite poems, reprinted below, gives a better indication of her character than would any personal memoir.

She never found comfort

When a friend told her

To weep her pain away,

And offered a shoulder.

But a thin tan lizard

Lying on a boulder

Indifferent and delicate,

Greatly consoled her.

Marie de L. Welch

New Statesman, Nov. 2, 1929