PREFACE to the American Edition.
The story of "THE POOR GENTLEMAN," now given in our language for the first time, is one of the series in which M.Conscience has delineated various grades of female character in positions of trial.

In "The Village Innkeeper" he has shown the weaker traits of woman distracted between an inborn sense of propriety and a foolish ambition for high, life.

In the "Conscript" his heroine displays the nobler virtues of uncorrupted humble life; and, with few characters, taken from the lowest walks, he shows the triumph of honest, straightforward earnestness and pertinacious courage, even when they are brought in conflict with authority.

"The Poor Gentleman" closes the series; and, selecting a heroine from the educated classes of his country-people M.Conscience has demonstrated how superior a _genuine woman_ becomes to all the mishaps of fortune, and how successfully she subdues that imaginary _fate_ before which so many are seen to fall.
It would be difficult to describe this remarkable work without analyzing the tale and criticizing its personages.

This would anticipate the author and mar the interest of his story.