, je me remets a vous ecrire._ _St. Ives_ is now in the 5th
chapter copying; in the 14th chapter of the dictated draft. I do not
believe I shall end by disliking it.

_Monday._--Well, here goes again for the news. Fanny is _very well_
indeed, and in good spirits; I am in good spirits, but not _very_ well;
Lloyd is in good spirits and very well; Belle has a real good fever
which has put her pipe out wholly. Graham goes back this mail. He takes
with him three chapters of _The Family_, and is to go to you as soon as
he can. He cannot be much the master of his movements, but you grip him
when you can and get all you can from him, as he has lived about six
months with us and he can tell you just what is true and what is
not--and not the dreams of dear old Ross.[66] He is a good fellow, is he
not?

Since you rather revise your views of _The Ebb Tide_, I think Lloyd's
name might stick, but I'll leave it to you. I'll tell you just how it
stands. Up to the discovery of the champagne, the tale was all planned
between us and drafted by Lloyd; from that moment he has had nothing to
do with it except talking it over. For we changed our plan, gave up the
projected Monte Cristo, and cut it down for a short story. My
impression--(I beg your pardon--this is a local joke--a firm here had on
its beer labels, "sole importers")--is that it will never be popular,
but might make a little _succes de scandale_. However, I'm done with it
now, and not sorry, and the crowd may rave and mumble its bones for what
I care.

Hole essential.[67] I am sorry about the maps; but I want 'em for next
edition, so see and have proofs sent. You are quite right about the
bottle and the great Huish, I must try to make it clear. No, I will not
write a play for Irving nor for the devil. Can you not see that the work
of _falsification_ which a play demands is of all tasks the most
ungrateful? And I have done it a long while--and nothing ever came of
it.

Consider my new proposal, I mean Honolulu. You would get the Atlantic
and the Rocky Mountains, would you not? for bracing. And so much less
sea! And then you could actually see Vailima, which I _would_ like you
to, for it's beautiful and my home and tomb that is to be; though it's a
wrench not to be planted in Scotland--that I can never deny--if I could
only be buried in the hills, under the heather and a table tombstone
like the martyrs, where the whaups and plovers are crying! Did you see a
man who wrote the