Chapter I: Preface

These pages are mainly concerned with men and women who, in days gone by, have done my wife and me the honour to sit at our table, and have now left us. I think of their Empty Chairs from a warm corner of my heart: their friendship has brightened my life and stored my mind with rosemary.

Having already written _Recollections_, I am bound to repeat myself, so let me plead forgiveness for the besetting sin of advanced years.

My apology for the book is its last chapter.

S. B.

CONTENTS

I. King Edward VII

II. _Place aux Dames_

III. The Church

IV. The Law

V. Painting: Sculpture: Music

VI. Literature

VII. More Men of Mark

VIII. The Stage: I

IX. The Stage: II

X. One other Empty Chair

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EMPTY CHAIRS