



Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




Friends I have made
By George Manville Fenn
Published by Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co, London, Paris, New York.
This edition dated 1883.

Friends I have made, by George Manville Fenn.

________________________________________________________________________
This version was made from a set of scans that were actually defective.
Two sets of sixteen pages were missing, resulting in the absence of
chapters 10, 11 and 16.  In addition some text is missing from chapters
15 and 18.  Since the book consists of a collection of almost unrelated
anecdotes it was felt worth our while to make available as much as we
can, as it is certain that a better set of scans of this book may become
available, for instance from the microfilmed set held by Cambridge
University.  There are 21 chapters, of which we present 16 in full,
and two with a few paragraphs missing.
________________________________________________________________________
FRIENDS I HAVE MADE, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.



CHAPTER ONE.

MY LIFE.

May I ask your patience while I introduce myself--the writer of the
following chapters?  I am sitting before the looking-glass at the end of
my room as I write, I not from any vanity, you will readily perceive
that as you read on--but so that I may try and reflect with my ink the
picture that I wish to present to you of a rather sad--I only say
_rather_, for, upon the whole, I am very cheerful,--thin, pale,
careworn-looking woman, with hair that has long been scant and grey--
whiter, perhaps, than that of many people at eight-and-forty.

Eight-and-forty!  What a great age that seems to the young; and yet how
few the years, save in one period of my life, have appeared to me!  At
times I can hardly realise that I am decidedly elderly, so busy has been
my life, so swiftly has it glided away, thinking so much as I have of
other people and their lives as well as of my own.

I never knew how it was, but, somehow, those with whom I came in contact
