e lace. And alas! she was only
able to wear it once. But we'll hope to see more of it at Samoa; it
really is lovely. Both dames are royally outfitted in silk stockings,
etc. We return, as from a raid, with our spoils and our wounded. I am
now very dandy: I announced two years ago that I should change. Slovenly
youth, all right--not slovenly age. So really now I am pretty spruce;
always a white shirt, white necktie, fresh shave, silk socks, O a great
sight!--No more possible.

R. L. S.

TO CHARLES BAXTER

Of the books mentioned below, _Dr. Syntax's Tour_ and Rowlandson's
_Dance of Death_ had been for use in furnishing customs and manners
in the English part of _St. Ives_; _Pitcairn_ is Pitcairn's _Criminal
Trials of Scotland from 1488 to 1624_. As to the name of Stevenson
and its adoption by some members of the proscribed clan of Macgregor,
Stevenson had been greatly interested by the facts laid before him by
his correspondent here mentioned, Mr. Macgregor Stevenson of New
York, and had at first delightedly welcomed the idea that his own
ancestors might have been fellow-clansmen of Rob Roy. But further
correspondence on the subject of his own descent held with a trained
genealogist, his namesake Mr. J. Horne Stevenson of Edinburgh,
convinced him that the notion must be abandoned.

[_April 1893._]

... About _The Justice-Clerk_, I long to go at it, but will first try to
get a short story done. Since January I have had two severe illnesses,
my boy, and some heartbreaking anxiety over Fanny; and am only now
convalescing. I came down to dinner last night for the first time, and
that only because the service had broken down, and to relieve an
inexperienced servant. Nearly four months now I have rested my brains;
and if it be true that rest is good for brains, I ought to be able to
pitch in like a giant refreshed. Before the autumn, I hope to send you
some _Justice-Clerk_, or _Weir of Hermiston_, as Colvin seems to prefer;
I own to indecision. Received _Syntax_, _Dance of Death_, and
_Pitcairn_, which last I have read from end to end since its arrival,
with vast improvement. What a pity it stops so soon! I wonder is there
nothing that seems to prolong the series? Why doesn't some young man
take it up? How about my old friend Fountainhall's _Decisions?_ I
remember as a boy that there was some good reading there. Perhaps you
could borrow me that, and send it on loan; an