



Produced by Christopher Hapka





A FAIR PENITENT

By Wilkie Collins




About "A Fair Penitent"

This story first appeared in Charles Dickens' magazine, "Household
Words," volume 16, number 382, July 18, 1857. Published anonymously, as
all contributions to the magazine were, it was attributed definitely
to Wilkie Collins by Anne Lohrli in her analysis of the magazine's
financial accounts.




A FAIR PENITENT


Charles Pineau Duclos was a French writer of biographies and novels,
who lived and worked during the first half of the eighteenth century. He
prospered sufficiently well, as a literary man, to be made secretary to
the French Academy, and to be allowed to succeed Voltaire in the
office of historiographer of France. He has left behind him, in his
own country, the reputation of a lively writer of the second class, who
addressed the public of his day with fair success, and who, since his
death, has not troubled posterity to take any particular notice of him.

Among the papers l