I had to confess that mine had not gone be-
yond a few straggling notes.

"Notes? I didn't make any." He drank his
tea all at once and put down the cup. "I didn't
arrange or rearrange. I simply wrote down
what of herself and myself and other people
Antonia's name recalls to me. I suppose it hasn't
any form. It hasn't any title, either." He went
into the next room, sat down at my desk and
wrote on the pinkish face of the portfolio the
word, "Antonia." He frowned at this a moment,
then prefixed another word, making it "My
Antonia." That seemed to satisfy him.

"Read it as soon as you can," he said, rising,
"but don't let it influence your own story."

My own story was never written, but the fol-
lowing narrative is Jim's manuscript, substan-
tially as he brought it to me.

[[xiv]]

f013 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ f014w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p001

v?