book, I find three
poems from _Viol and Flute_ copied out in his hand: "When Flower-time,"
"Love in Winter," and "Mistrust." They are capital too. But I thought
the fact would interest you. He was no poetist either; so it means the
more. "Love in W.!" I like the best.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

Enclosing some supplementary verses for the _Child's Garden_.

_Marseilles, June 1884._

DEAR S. C.,--Are these four in time? No odds about order. I am at
Marseille and stood the journey wonderfully. Better address Hotel
Chabassiere, Royat, Puy de Dome. You see how this d--d poeshie flows
from me in sickness: Are they good or bad? Wha kens? But I like the
_Little Land_, I think, as well as any. As time goes on I get more fancy
in. We have no money, but a valet and a maid. The valet is no end; how
long can you live on a valet? Vive le valet! I am tempted to call myself
a valetudinarian. I love my love with a V because he is a
Valetudinarian; I took him to Valetta or Valais, gave him his Vails and
tenderly addressed him with one word,

Vale.

_P.S._--It does not matter of course about order. As soon as I have all
the slips I shall organise the book for the publisher. A set of 8 will
be put together under the title _An Only Child_; another cycle of 10
will be called _In the Garden_, and other six called _Bedtime_ to end
all up. It will now make quite a little volume of a good way upwards of
100 pp. Will you instruct Bain to send me a Bible; of a type that I can
read without blindness; the better if with notes; there is a Clarendon
Press Bible, pray see it yourself. I also want Ewald's History in a
translation.

R. L. S.

TO SIDNEY COLVIN

The play of _Deacon Brodie_, the joint work of R. L. S. and W. E. H.,
was to be performed in London early in July.

[_Hotel Chabassiere, Royat, July 1884._]

DEAR S. C.,--Books received with great thanks. Very nice books, though I
see you underrate my cecity: I could no more read their beautiful Bible
than I could sail in heaven. However I have sent for another and can
read the rest for patience.

I quite understand your feelings about the _Deacon_, which is a far way
behind; but I get miserable when I think of Henley cutting this splash
and standing, I fear, to lose a great deal of money. It is about Henley,
not Brodie, that I care. I fear my affections are not strong to my past
works; they are blotted out by others; and anyhow the _Deacon_ is d