ich I shall take to be good news.
Archer's note has gone. He is, in truth, a very clever fellow that
Archer, and I believe a good one. It is a pleasant thing to see a man
who can use a pen; he can: really says what he means, and says it with a
manner; comes into print like one at his ease, not shame-faced and
wrong-foot-foremost like the bulk of us. Well, here is luck, and here
are the kindest recollections from the canary-bird and from King Lear,
from the Tragic Woman and the Flimsy Man.

ROBERT RAMSAY FERGUSSON STEVENSON.

TO FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON

Stevenson suffered more even than usual after the turn of the year
and during the spring of 1887, and for several months his
correspondence almost entirely fails. This is in reply to an
invitation to Rowfant for Easter.

_Skerryvore, Bournemouth, February 5th, 1887._

MY DEAR LOCKER,--Here I am in my bed as usual, and it is indeed a long
while since I went out to dinner. You do not know what a crazy fellow
this is. My winter has not so far been luckily passed, and all hope of
paying visits at Easter has vanished for twelve calendar months. But
because I am a beastly and indurated invalid, I am not dead to human
feelings; and I neither have forgotten you nor will forget you. Some day
the wind may round to the right quarter and we may meet; till then I am
still truly yours,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO HENRY JAMES

The volume of tales here mentioned is _The Merry Men_; that of
essays, _Memories and Portraits_; that of verse, _Underwoods_.

[_Skerryvore, Bournemouth, February 1887._]

MY DEAR JAMES,--My health has played me it in once more in the absurdest
fashion, and the creature who now addresses you is but a stringy and
white-faced _bouilli_ out of the pot of fever, with the devil to pay in
every corner of his economy. I suppose (to judge by your letter) I need
not send you these sheets, which came during my collapse by the rush. I
am on the start with three volumes, that one of tales, a second one of
essays, and one of--ahem--verse. This is a great order, is it not? After
that I shall have empty lockers. All new work stands still; I was
getting on well with Jenkin when this blessed malady unhorsed me, and
sent me back to the dung-collecting trade of the republisher. I shall
re-issue _Virg. Puer._ as vol. I. of _Essays_, and the new vol. as vol.
II. of ditto; to be sold, however, separately. This is but a