This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ... DEDICATION I CAME out by the stagedoor of the Duke of York's Theatre at a quarter-past twelve on the first night of the production of Madame Sand, by Phillip Moeller. A girl of about fifteen, bare-headed, was standing against the wall, evidently waiting for some one. I said: "What are you waiting for?" "To see you." "Where do you live?" "At Richmond." "How are you going to get back?" "Walk. I walked here early this morning. I wanted to get a good place to see the play, and I did: and now I have been waiting to see you." Then, with a wild young look of ecstasy, she vanished into the night. To her I dedicate this book. MY LIFE AND SOME LETTERS CHAPTER I. WITH some little difficulty I have gathered together the following romantic and rather remarkable facts of my family history: -- My grandfather, John Tanner, was a descendant of Thomas Tanner, Bishop of St. Asaph; born 1693, died 1735. He had a son, Thomas Tanner, who was Rector of "St. Edmund The King and Martyr," and Rector of Merstham, Surrey; also Prebendary of Canterbury. ***** My grandfather went out to India as a very young man, and eventually became Army Contractor to the British East India Company. He made a large fortune--married Mary Ann Davis in 1823. They lived at Byculla Park, Bombay; seven children were born to them, the eldest--my father--John Tanner; William, Oscar, Fred, Emily, Emma, and my dear "Uncle Harry" (Henry Ward Tanner). My father and my mother, Maria Luigia Giovanna Romanini, fell helplessly in love at their first '-mejrtiiigi'-.my mother could not speak a word of English, and my father not a word of Italian. He was twenty-one, she was seventeen. The marriage caused great excitement in Bombay at the time, my father being the heir of one of the richest An