A Rogues Life | Page 3

a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form
(or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small

Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits
you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate
your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is due.
Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg
Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following
each date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual
(or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU
DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning
machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright
licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money
should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon
University".
*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN
ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

[Italics are indicatedby underscores James Rusk,
[email protected].]

A ROGUE'S LIFE
by Wilkie Collins

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, I trust, nobody will show such want of regard for
my feelings as to expect me to say much about my mother's brother.
That inhuman person committed an outrage on his family by making a
fortune in the soap and candle trade. I apologize for mentioning him,
even in an accidental way. The fact is, he left my sister, Annabella, a
legacy of rather a peculiar kind, saddled with certain conditions which
indirectly affected me; but this passage of family history need not be
produced just yet. I apologize a second time for alluding to money
matters before it was absolutely necessary. Let me get back to a
pleasing and reputable subject, by saying a word or two more about my
father.
I am rather afraid that Doctor Softly was not a clever medical man; for
in spite of his great connections, he did not get a very