Excerpt from People I Have Met: Or Pictures of Society and People of Mark, Drawn Under a Thin Veil of Fiction Real life is not as commonplace as it is represented. The contrasts, surprises, combinations, and novel situations, which some say are only found in plays, occur in every day society -with the difference, that those in a play are published to the world, while those in private life are known only to one or two. The dread of misrepresentation conceals from us most of the ma chinery of life, and all of its most wonderful occurrences, except now and then one that is disclosed by accident. He who fancies that he sees all that is dramatic. Even in the circle where he is most intimate, is like a deaf and [mad man unconsciously present at a play. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.