now you are in a sad anxiety
yourself. I hope earnestly it will soon be over, and a fine pink Gosse
sprawling in a tub, and a mother in the best of health and spirits, glad
and tired, and with another interest in life. Man, you are out of the
trouble when this is through. A first child is a rival, but a second is
only a rival to the first; and the husband stands his ground and may
keep married all his life--a consummation heartily to be desired.
Good-bye, Gosse. Write me a witty letter with good news of the mistress.

R. L. S.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] The letter breaks off here.

[21] Thomas Basin or Bazin, the historian of Charles VIII. and Louis XI.

[22] R. Glasgow Brown lay dying in the Riviera.

V

THE AMATEUR EMIGRANT

S.S. DEVONIA--MONTEREY AND SAN FRANCISCO--MARRIAGE

July 1879-July 1880

In France, as has been already indicated, Stevenson had met the American
lady, Mrs. Osbourne, who was afterwards to become his wife. Her domestic
relations had not been fortunate; to his chivalrous nature her
circumstances appealed no less than her person; and almost from their
first meeting, which befell at Grez, immediately after the canoe voyage
of 1876, he conceived for her an attachment which was to transform and
determine his life. On her return to America with her children in the
autumn of 1878, she determined to seek a divorce from her husband.
Hearing of her intention, together with very disquieting news of her
health, and hoping that after she had obtained the divorce he might make
her his wife, Stevenson suddenly started for California at the beginning
of August 1879.

For what he knew must seem to his friends, and especially to his father,
so wild an errand, he would ask for no supplies from home; but resolved,
risking his whole future on the issue, to test during this adventure his
power of supporting himself, and eventually others, by his own labours
in literature. In order from the outset to save as much as possible, he
made the journey in the steerage and the emigrant train. With this
prime motive of economy was combined a second--that of learning for
himself the pinch of life as it is felt by the unprivileged and the poor
(he had long ago disclaimed for himself the character of a "consistent
first-class passenger in life")--and also, it should be added, a third,
that of turning his experiences to literary account. On board ship he
took daily notes with this intent, and wrote moreover