A Phantom Lover by Vernon Lee Fiction

<p>My Dear Boutourline Do you remember my telling you one afternoon that you sat upon the hearth stool at Florence the story of Mrs. Oke of Okehurst? You thought it a fantastic tale you lover of fantastic things and urged me to write it out at once although I protested that in such matters to write is to exorcise to dispel the charm; and that printers' ink chases away the ghosts that may pleasantly haunt us as efficaciously as gallons of holy water. But if as I suspect you will now put down any charm that story may have possessed to the way in which we had been working ourselves up that firelight evening with all manner of fantastic stuff -- if as I fear the story of Mrs. Oke of Okehurst will strike you as stale and unprofitable -- the sight of this little book will serve at least to remind you in the middle of your Russian summer that there is such a season as winter such a place as Florence and such a person as your friend Vernon Lee Kensington July 1886.</p>