INTRODUCTORY WORDS.

The following pages were written more than twenty years since, and were then published periodically in Household Words.

In the original form of publication the Rogue was very favorably received.  Year after year, I delayed the republication, proposing, at the suggestion of my old friend, Mr. Charles Reade, to enlarge the present sketch of the hero’s adventures in Australia.  But the opportunity of carrying out this project has proved to be one of the lost opportunities of my life.  I republish the story with its original conclusion unaltered, but with such occasional additions and improvements as will, I hope, render it more worthy of attention at the present time.

The critical reader may possibly notice a tone of almost boisterous gayety in certain parts of these imaginary Confessions.  I can only plead, in defense, that the story offers the faithful reflection of a very happy time in my past life.  It was written at Paris, when I had Charles Dickens for a near neighbor and a daily companion, and when my leisure hours were joyously passed with many other friends, all associated with literature and art, of whom the admirable comedian, Regnier, is now the only survivor.  The revising of these pages has been to me a melancholy task.  I can only hope that they may cheer the sad moments of others.  The Rogue may surely claim two merits, at least, in the eyes of the new generation—­he is never serious for two moments together; and he “doesn’t take long to read.”  W. C.

Gloucester place, London, March 6th, 1879.

A ROGUE’S LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

I am going to try if I can’t write something about myself.  My life has been rather a strange one.  It may not seem particularly useful or respectable; but it has been, in some respects, adventurous; and that may give it claims to be read, even in the most prejudiced circles.  I am an example of some of the workings of the social system of this illustrious country on the individual native, during the early part of the present century; and, if I may say so without unbecoming vanity, I should like to quote myself for the edification of my countrymen.

Who am I.

I am remarkably well connected, I can tell you.  I came into this world with the great advantage of having Lady Malkinshaw for a grandmother, her ladyship’s daughter for a mother, and Francis James Softly, Esq., M. D. (commonly called Doctor Softly), for a father.  I put my father last, because he was not so well connected as my mother, and my grandmother first, because she was the most nobly-born person of the three.  I have been, am still, and may continue to be, a Rogue; but I hope I am not abandoned enough yet to forget the respect that is due to rank.  On this account,