Preface

It is not an easy task, nor is it pleasant, to carry on another man's
work: but the possession of this scenario lightened the work
enormously. I have been careful to adhere faithfully and exactly to the
plot, scene by scene, down to the smallest detail as it was laid down
by the author in this book. I have altered nothing. I have preserved
and incorporated every fragment of dialogue. I have used the very
language wherever that was written so carefully as to show that it was
meant to be used. I think that there is only one trivial detail where I
had to choose because it was not clear from the notes what the author
had intended. The plot of the novel, every scene, every situation, from
beginning to end, is the work of Wilkie Collins. The actual writing is
entirely his up to a certain point: from that point to the end it is
partly his, but mainly mine. Where his writing ends and mine begins, I
need not point out. The practised critic will, no doubt, at once lay
his finger on the spot.

I have therefore carried out the author's wishes to the best of my
ability. I would that he were living still, if only to regret that he
had not been allowed to finish his last work with his own hand!

WALTER BESANT.