FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158  
159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   >>   >|  
not to tell it before) that he is one of the most unlucky men I know, having put all his money into a pharmacy at Hyeres, when the cholera (certainly not his fault) swept away his customers in a body. Thus you can imagine the pleasure I have to announce to him a spark of hope, for he sits to-day in his pharmacy, doing nothing and taking nothing, and watching his debts inexorably mount up. To pass to other matters: your hand, you are perhaps aware, is not one of those that can be read running; and the name of your daughter remains for me undecipherable. I call her, then, your daughter--and a very good name too--and I beg to explain how it came about that I took her house. The hospital was a point in my tale; but there is a house on each side. Now the true house is the one before the hospital: is that No. 11? If not, what do you complain of? If it is, how can I help what is true? Everything in the _Dynamiter_ is not true; but the story of the Brown Box is, in almost every particular; I lay my hand on my heart and swear to it. It took place in that house in 1884; and if your daughter was in that house at the time, all I can say is she must have kept very bad society. But I see you coming. Perhaps your daughter's house has not a balcony at the back? I cannot answer for that; I only know that side of Queen Square from the pavement and the back windows of Brunswick Row. Thence I saw plenty of balconies (terraces rather); and if there is none to the particular house in question, it must have been so arranged to spite me. I now come to the conclusion of this matter. I address three questions to your daughter:-- 1st. Has her house the proper terrace? 2nd. Is it on the proper side of the hospital? 3rd. Was she there in the summer of 1884? You see, I begin to fear that Mrs. Desborough may have deceived me on some trifling points, for she is not a lady of peddling exactitude. If this should prove to be so, I will give your daughter a proper certificate, and her house property will return to its original value. Can man say more?--Yours very truly, ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. I saw the other day that the Eternal had plagiarised from _Lost Sir Massingberd_: good again, sir! I wish he would plagiarise the death of Zero. TO W. H. LOW The late Sir Percy and Lady Shelley had in these days attached themselves warmly to R. L. S., and saw in his ways and character a living image of those of
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158  
159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
daughter
 

proper

 

hospital

 
pharmacy
 

terrace

 

Desborough

 

summer

 

plagiarise

 

question

 

balconies


terraces

 
arranged
 

matter

 
address
 
Shelley
 

conclusion

 

questions

 

warmly

 

original

 

return


Massingberd

 

certificate

 

property

 

plenty

 

ROBERT

 
STEVENSON
 

Eternal

 

plagiarised

 

living

 

peddling


character

 

points

 
attached
 

trifling

 

exactitude

 

deceived

 

inexorably

 

watching

 

taking

 

matters


remains
 
undecipherable
 

running

 

Hyeres

 

unlucky

 
cholera
 

imagine

 
pleasure
 
announce
 

customers