that from an ungrateful hound who is now enjoying his first
decently competent and peaceful weeks for close upon two years; happy in
a big brown moor behind him, and an incomparable burn by his side;
happy, above all, in some work--for at last I am at work with that
appetite and confidence that alone makes work supportable.

I told you I had something else to say. I am very tedious--it is another
request. In August and a good part of September we shall be in Braemar,
in a house with some accommodation. Now Braemar is a place patronised by
the royalty of the Sister Kingdoms--Victoria and the Cairngorms, sir,
honouring that countryside by their conjunct presence. This seems to me
the spot for A Bard. Now can you come to see us for a little while? I
can promise you, you must like my father, because you are a human being;
you ought to like Braemar, because of your avocation; and you ought to
like me, because I like you; and again, you must like my wife, because
she likes cats; and as for my mother--well, come and see, what do you
think? that is best. Mrs. Gosse, my wife tells me, will have other fish
to fry; and to be plain, I should not like to ask her till I had seen
the house. But a lone man I know we shall be equal to. _Qu'en dis tu?
Viens._--Yours,

R. L. S.

TO P. G. HAMERTON

_Kinnaird Cottage, Pitlochry [July 1881]._

MY DEAR MR. HAMMERTON,--(There goes the second M.; it is a certainty.)
Thank you for your prompt and kind answer, little as I deserved it,
though I hope to show you I was less undeserving than I seemed. But just
might I delete two words in your testimonial? The two words "and legal"
were unfortunately winged by chance against my weakest spot, and would
go far to damn me.

It was not my bliss that I was interested in when I was married; it was
a sort of marriage _in extremis_; and if I am where I am, it is thanks
to the care of that lady who married me when I was a mere complication
of cough and bones, much fitter for an emblem of mortality than a
bridegroom.

I had a fair experience of that kind of illness when all the women (God
bless them!) turn round upon the streets and look after you with a look
that is only too kind not to be cruel. I have had nearly two years of
more or less prostration. I have done no work whatever since the
February before last until quite of late. To be precise, until the
beginning of last month, exactly two essays. All last winter I was at
Davos;