Preface.

The language used in telling the following story is not (as I hope the reader will soon perceive) the Author’s, but Mr. William Marston’s.

The Author’s intention was, while telling the story, to develop, in the person of an imaginary narrator, the character of a thoroughly¹ good-hearted and tolerably clever man, who has his fingers (as he would say himself) in every one’s pie, and who, for the life of him, cannot keep his own counsel — that is to say, the only person who, by any possibility, could have collected the mass of family gossip which makes up the tale.

Had the Author told it in his own person, it would have been told with less familiarity, and, as he thinks, you would not have laughed quite so often.

1 thoroughly   

adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地

参考例句：

• The soil must be thoroughly turned over before planting.一定要先把土地深翻一遍再下种。
• The soldiers have been thoroughly instructed in the care of their weapons.士兵们都系统地接受过保护武器的训练。