eds must, we have no right to pain
our readers. I have had a heavy case of conscience of the same kind
about my Braxfield story. Braxfield--only his name is Hermiston--has a
son who is condemned to death; plainly, there is a fine tempting fitness
about this; and I meant he was to hang. But now on considering my minor
characters, I saw there were five people who would--in a sense who
must--break prison and attempt his rescue. They were capable, hardy
folks, too, who might very well succeed. Why should they not then? Why
should not young Hermiston escape clear out of the country? and be
happy, if he could, with his----. But soft! I will not betray my secret
or my heroine. Suffice it to breathe in your ear that she was what
Hardy calls (and others in their plain way don't) a Pure Woman.[50] Much
virtue in a capital letter, such as yours was.

Write to me again in my infinite distance. Tell me about your new book.
No harm in telling _me_; I am too far off to be indiscreet; there are
too few near me who would care to hear. I am rushes by the riverside,
and the stream is in Babylon: breathe your secrets to me fearlessly; and
if the Trade Wind caught and carried them away, there are none to catch
them nearer than Australia, unless it were the Tropic Birds. In the
unavoidable absence of my amanuensis, who is buying eels for dinner, I
have thus concluded my dispatch, like St. Paul, with my own hand.

And in the inimitable words of Lord Kames, Faur ye weel, ye
bitch.--Yours very truly,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO E. L. BURLINGAME

_Vailima Plantation, Nov. 2nd, 1892._

MY DEAR BURLINGAME,--In the first place, I have to acknowledge receipt
of your munificent cheque for three hundred and fifty dollars. Glad you
liked the Scott voyage; rather more than I did upon the whole. As the
proofs have not turned up at all, there can be no question of returning
them, and I am therefore very much pleased to think you have arranged
not to wait. The volumes of Adams arrived along with yours of October
6th. One of the dictionaries has also blundered home, apparently from
the Colonies; the other is still to seek. I note and sympathise with
your bewilderment as to _Falesa_. My own direct correspondence with Mr.
Baxter is now about three months in abeyance. Altogether you see how
well it would be if you could do anything to wake up the Post Office.
Not a single copy of the _Footnote_ has yet reached Samoa, but I hear of
one