E-text prepared by Lionel Sear
A Man's Portrait of a Woman
by
First Published in 1910.
This story originally appeared in the weekly edition of the "Times,"and is now issued in book form by arrangement with the Proprietors ofthat Journal.
TO My Commodore and old Friend Edward Atkinson, Esq.of Rosebank, Mixtow-by-Fowey.
Some years ago an unknown American friend proposed my writing a story onthe loves and adventures of Sir Harry Frankland, Collector of the Portof Boston in the mid-eighteenth century, and Agnes Surriage, daughter ofa poor Marble-head fisherman. The theme attracted me as it hasattracted other writers—and notably Oliver Wendell Holmes, who built apoem on it. But while their efforts seemed to leave room for another, Iwas no match for them in knowledge of the facts or of local details;and, moreover, these facts and details cramped my story. I repented,therefore and, taking the theme, altered the locality and thecharacters—who, by the way, in the writing have become real enough tome, albeit in a different sense. Thus (I hope) no violence has beenoffered to historical truth, while I have been able to tell the tale inmy own fashion.