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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. "One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward,
Never doubted clouds would break;
Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph;
Held, we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep--to wake."
--ROBERT BROWNING.
AUTHOR'S NOTE.
In revising and partially rewriting my novel, 'Captain Desmond, V.C.,' I have been glad to make good the opportunity afforded me of bringing the Aftermath nearer to my original conception than it was in its first form. The three short chapters now substituted for the one final scene are therefore, in essence, no innovation. They represent more or less what I conceived at the time, but suppressed through fear of making my book too long; and thereby risked upsetting the balance of sympathy, which I hope the fresh chapters may tend to restore.
M. D. _