This book is given to the reader, as the exposition of a terrible possibility in actual life. Should there be found, in its pages, any warm tints, any cheering or amusing passages, the author will be glad to know that they have brightened a moment of some reader’s life. But he has not written merely to amuse. He has sought to “point a moral,” as well as to “adorn a tale;” and, if the work shall become the means of helping some sincere soul to a strengthening of its determination to think before acting, to study consequences before creating causes, the author will not have written in vain.     [chương_files]