The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Romance of an Old Fool, by Roswell Field

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Title: The Romance of an Old Fool

Author: Roswell Field

Release Date: February 24, 2007 [EBook #20661]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_The_ ROMANCE OF
AN OLD FOOL

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THE ROMANCE

OF

AN OLD FOOL

BY

ROSWELL FIELD

EVANSTON
WILLIAM S. LORD
1902

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_Copyright, 1902, by_
ROSWELL FIELD

UNIVERSITY PRESS . JOHN WILSON
AND SON . CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

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_To_
MY GODCHILDREN

_With the somewhat unnecessary assurance that
it is not an autobiography, this little
tale of misconceived attachment
is affectionately
inscribed_

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THE ROMANCE _of_ AN OLD FOOL

If it had not been for Bunsey, the novelist, I might have
attained the heights. As a critic Bunsey has never commanded my
highest admiration, and yet I have had my tender moments for him.
From a really exacting standpoint he was not much of a novelist,
and to his failure to win the wealth which is supposed to
accompany fame I may have owed much of the debt of his sustained
presence and his fondness for my tobacco. Bunsey had started out
in life with high ideals, a resolution to lead the purely
literary existence and to supply the market with a variety of
choice, didactic essays along the line of high thinking; but the
demand did not come up to the supply, and presently he abandoned
his original lofty intention in favor of a sort of dubious
romance. The financial returns, however, while a trifle more
regular and encouraging, were not of sufficient importance to
justify him in giving up his friendly claims on my house, my