It came, indeed, so easily from the pen that I had the misgiving which I always have of things which do not cost me great trouble.
There is nothing in the book with which I amused myself more than the house-hunting of the Marches when they were placing themselves in New York; and if the contemporary reader should turn for instruction to the pages in which their experience is detailed I assure him that he may trust their fidelity and accuracy in the article of New York housing as it was early in the last decade of the last century: I mean, the housing of people of such moderate means as the Marches.

In my zeal for truth I did not distinguish between reality and actuality in this or other matters--that is, one was as precious to me as the other.

But the types here portrayed are as true as ever they were, though the world in which they were finding their habitat is wonderfully, almost incredibly different.

Yet it is not wholly different, for a young literary pair now adventuring in New York might easily parallel the experience of the Marches with their own, if not for so little money; many phases of New York housing are better, but all are dearer.

Other aspects of the material city have undergone a transformation much more wonderful.