On the suggestion of my publisher I have collected in one volume the six stories that follow: "AFragment of Life," "The White People," "TheGreat God Pan," " The Inmost Light" " The Three
Impostors" and " The Red Hand" Three of these
have already been published in book form; the rest
will, I think, be new to the great majority of myreaders
My fellow-authors will, I am sure, sympathize
with me in the difficult task offinding a general title which is not obviously impertinent. The difficulty
of the task will appear when it is recollected that
Mr. Kipling, the inventor of some of the most wonderful and admirable tales that have ever been written,
has been content (or compelled) to shirk the issue with
such titles as "Life's Handicap" and "Many Inventions "
; and Poe was not conspicuously happy in
qualifying his tales as "Arabesque and Grotesque."
Failure, then, is not altogether disgraceful; and the
title I have chosen, "The House of Souls," will at
all events hint at the nature of the contents.