English duchess, and native kings and chiefs. Once a high chief,
one of the highest, bearing the somewhat lengthy name of
Tuimalealiifono, came on a visit to Vailima. He was quite unacquainted
with white ways of living, and, when shown to his bedroom, looked
askance at the neat, comfortable bed that had been prepared for him.
In the morning it was found that he had scorned the bed, and, retiring
to the piazza, had rolled himself up in his mat and lain down to
pleasant dreams. At table, although he had never before seen knives
and forks, he picked up their use instantly by quietly observing the
manners of the others.

A curious episode, which might have turned out to be dangerous,
happened during the war troubles, when King Malietoa went up to
Vailima secretly to have a talk with Tusitala. After the talk Louis
offered him a present, asking what he preferred. Malietoa said he
would like a revolver, and Louis took one from the safe and handed it
to his wife, who happened to be sitting next the king. She emptied the
chambers, as she thought, and then, not noticing that the thing was
pointing straight at the king's heart, she clicked it five times. By a
lucky chance, before clicking it the sixth time she looked in, and
behold, there was the last cartridge! If she had given the last click
she certainly would have killed the king, and one can imagine the
complications that would have resulted in those uneasy times. Of
course the episode, with all the dramatic possibilities attached to
it, appealed to the romantic imaginations of the two Stevensons, and,
after the king's departure, they spent the evening in making up a
harrowing tale about what would have happened if she had killed him.

Among the notable visitors to Vailima was the Italian artist Pieri
Nerli, who came to paint Mr. Stevenson's portrait--the one that now
hangs in Swanson Cottage in Scotland. This portrait pleased his wife
as little as did the Sargent picture, and, in a letter to Lord Guthrie
of Edinburgh, she makes what Lord Guthrie calls "an acute criticism of
this overdramatized likeness." She says: "It would have been all right
if Nerli had only been content to paint just Louis, and had not
insisted on representing instead the author of _Dr. Jekyll and Mr.
Hyde_."

It was not all work at Vailima by any means. "Socially," she writes,
"Samoa was not dull. There were many entertainments given by diplomats
and officials in Apia. Besides native feasts there wer