I have been occupied with this story, during many working hours of two years.

I must have been very ill employed, if I could not leave its merits and demerits as a whole, to express themselves on its being read as a whole.

But, as it is not unreasonable to suppose that I may have held its threads with a more continuous attention than anyone else can have given them during its desultory publication, it is not unreasonable to ask that the weaving may be looked at in its completed state, and with the pattern finished.