The Head of the House of Coombe

PUBLISHERS’ NOTE

The inflexible limitations of magazine space necessitated the omission—­in its serial form—­of so large a portion of the head of the house of Coombe as to eliminate much of the charm of characterization and the creation of atmosphere and background which add so greatly to the power and picturesqueness of the author’s work.

These values having been unavoidably lost in a greatly compressed version, it is the publishers’ desire to produce the story in its entirety, and, as during its writing it developed into what might be regarded as two novels—­so distinctly does it deal with two epochs—­it has been decided to present it to its public as two separate books.  The first, the head of the house of Coombe, deals with social life in London during the evolutionary period between the late Victorian years and the reign of Edward VII and that of his successor, previous to the Great War.  It brings Lord Coombe and Donal, Feather and her girl Robin to the summer of 1914.  It ends with the ending of a world which can never again be the same.  The second novel, robin, to be published later continues the story of the same characters, facing existence, however, in a world transformed by tragedy, and in which new aspects of character, new social, economic, and spiritual possibilities are to be confronted, rising to the surface of life as from the depths of unknown seas.  Readers of the head of the house of Coombe will follow the story of Robin with intensified interest.