ite in any other
place. Their arrival was the cause of great rejoicing to Mrs.
Stevenson's daughter, who was then living in Honolulu, for the
_Casco_, long overdue, had been given up as lost.

They found Honolulu very beautiful. Taking a house at Waikiki, a short
distance from town, they settled down to finish _The Master of
Ballantrae_. In these surroundings, which seemed to them
ultra-civilized after their experiences in the Marquesas and the
Societies, they were able to enjoy a little family life. Under a great
_hau_-tree that stood in the garden a birthday-party was given to
Austin Strong, the little son of Mrs. Stevenson's daughter. Just as
though it had been prearranged, in the midst of the party who should
come along but an Italian with a performing bear, the first that any
of the children had ever seen! The silent witness to these festivities
of years ago, the great _hau_-tree, still stands.

It was at this time that Stevenson began work on the scheme of his
book on the South Seas. This was one of the rare occasions when he and
his wife reached a deadlock in their opinions, and, unfortunately for
the success of the book, he refused to accept her advice. Writing to
Sir Sidney Colvin, she says:

"I am very much exercised by one thing. Louis has the most enchanting
material that any one ever had in the whole world for his book, and I
am afraid he is going to spoil it all. He has taken into his
Scotch-Stevenson head that a stern duty lies before him, and that his
book must be a sort of scientific and historical, impersonal thing,
comparing the different languages (of which he knows nothing really)
and the different peoples, the object being to settle the question as
to whether they are of common Malay origin or not.... Think of a small
treatise on the Polynesian races being offered to people who are dying
to hear about Ori a Ori, the 'making of brothers' with cannibals, the
strange stories they told, and the extraordinary adventures that
befell us! Louis says it is a stern sense of duty that is at the
bottom of it, which is more alarming than anything else ... What a
thing it is to have a man of genius to deal with! It is like managing
an over-bred horse!"

"This letter," justly comments Sir Sidney, "shows the writer in her
character of wise and anxious critic of her husband's work. The
result, in the judgment of most of his friends, went far to justify
her misgivings."

It had been their intention to return