The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
MARY BOYLE
HER BOOK
SVB SOLE VANITAS
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
These sketches of my dear aunt’s life were begun byher only a few years before she died. The discretion asto their publication was left to those on whose judgmentshe relied, and at their request I have undertaken toprepare the sketches for presentation to the public, andto add to them here and there a few explanatory notesof my own.
I have left her chapters almost exactly as she wrotethem. They are well described in her Preface, and arevery characteristic of herself. Like a light-winged butterflyshe flits from flower to flower, resting long on none,nor caring to return to what she had apparently onlyquitted for a moment. As is natural to one writingafter a lapse of years, she refers within the space of apage or two to events which happened at wide intervalsof time.
She dwells with pardonable pride on her love for thedrama and the dance. Those who knew well her proficiencyin these will prefer to let their memory rest onthe brilliant wit and imperturbable good nature whichmade her a welcome guest in many societies. As agirl she had many opportunities of sharing in the Courtxlife of her own country and more than one continentalstate. Later she became intimate with literary men ofthe highest position. All through her life she had theentrée to many pleasant country houses, in which weregathered men of influence in affairs, and clever and amusingwomen full of knowledge of the events of the societyin which they moved. She was everywhere popular, andthis was not a little due to the fact that she hated scandaland eschewed gossip. She could not be ill-natu