ing lying waiting for me on p. 88, where I last broke down. I break
down at every paragraph, I may observe; and lie here and sweat, till I
can get one sentence wrung out after another. Strange doom; after having
worked so easily for so long! Did ever anybody see such a story of four
characters?

_Later, 2.30._--It may interest you to know that I am entirely _tapu_,
and live apart in my chambers like a caged beast. Lloyd has a bad cold,
and Graham and Belle are getting it. Accordingly, I dwell here without
the light of any human countenance or voice, and strap away at _The Ebb
Tide_ until (as now) I can no more. Fanny can still come, but is gone to
glory now, or to her garden. Page 88 is done, and must be done over
again to-morrow, and I confess myself exhausted. Pity a man who can't
work on along when he has nothing else on earth to do! But I have
ordered Jack, and am going for a ride in the bush presently to refresh
the machine; then back to a lonely dinner and durance vile. I acquiesce
in this hand of fate; for I think another cold just now would just about
do for me. I have scarce yet recovered the two last.

_May 18th._--My progress is crabwise, and I fear only IX. chapters will
be ready for the mail. I am on p. 88 again, and with half an idea of
going back again to 85. We shall see when we come to read: I used to
regard reading as a pleasure in my old light days. All the house are
down with the iffluenza in a body, except Fanny and me. The Iffluenza
appears to become endemic here, but it has always been a scourge in the
islands. Witness the beginning of _The Ebb Tide_, which was observed
long before the Iffle had distinguished himself at home by such
Napoleonic conquests. I am now of course "quite a recluse," and it is
very stale, and there is no amanuensis to carry me over my mail, to
which I shall have to devote many hours that would have been more
usefully devoted to _The Ebb Tide_. For you know you can dictate at all
hours of the day and at any odd moment; but to sit down and write with
your red right hand is a very different matter.

_May 20th._--Well, I believe I've about finished the thing, I mean as
far as the mail is to take it. Chapter X. is now in Lloyd's hands for
remarks, and extends in its present form to p. 93 incl. On the 12th of
May, I see by looking back, I was on p. 82, not for the first time; so
that I have made 11 pages in nine livelong days. Well! up a high hill he
heaved a huge round stone.