ion, as durable and
unvarying as any heathen deity. I always heard it, as a horseman riding
past with his cloak about his head, and somehow always carried away, and
riding past again, and being baffled yet once more, _ad infinitum_, all
night long. I think I wanted him to get past, but I am not sure; I know
only that I had some interest either for or against in the matter; and I
used to lie and hold my breath, not quite frightened, but in a state of
miserable exaltation.

My first _John Knox_ is in proof, and my second is on the anvil. It is
very good of me so to do; for I want so much to get to my real tour and
my sham tour, the real tour first; it is always working in my head, and
if I can only turn on the right sort of style at the right moment, I am
not much afraid of it. One thing bothers me; what with hammering at this
J. K., and writing necessary letters, and taking necessary exercise
(that even not enough, the weather is so repulsive to me, cold and
windy), I find I have no time for reading except times of fatigue, when
I wish merely to relax myself. O--and I read over again for this purpose
Flaubert's _Tentation de St. Antoine_; it struck me a good deal at
first, but this second time it has fetched me immensely. I am but just
done with it, so you will know the large proportion of salt to take
with my present statement, that it's the finest thing I ever read! Of
course, it isn't that, it's full of _longueurs_, and is not quite "redd
up," as we say in Scotland, not quite articulated; but there are
splendid things in it.

I say, _do_ take your macaroni with oil: _do, please_. It's _beastly_
with butter.--Ever your faithful friend,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO MRS. SITWELL

Mr. (later Sir) George Grove was for some years before and after this
date the editor of Macmillan's Magazine (but the true monument to his
memory is of course his _Dictionary of Music_). After the Knox
articles no more contributions from R. L. S. appeared in this
magazine, partly, I think, because Mr. Alexander Macmillan
disapproved of his essay on Burns published the following year. The
Portfolio paper here mentioned is that entitled _On the Enjoyment of
Unpleasant Places_.

_[Swanston, Autumn 1874], Thursday._

MY DEAR FRIEND,--I have another letter from Grove, about my _John Knox_,
which is flattering in its way: he is a very gushing and spontaneous
person. I am busy with another Portfolio p