daughter to him, a
comfort in his old age and last distressing illness, and when he died
she mourned him sincerely.

[Footnote 18: In American phrase, a "bossy" person.]

To the Scotch servants in her mother-in-law's house she was something
of an enigma. One of them told her she "spoke English very well for a
foreigner." One day she heard two of them talking about a Mr. McCollop
who had just returned from Africa. "He's merrit a black woman," said
one, and in a mirror the other was seen to point to Mrs. Stevenson's
back and put her finger to her lips, as though to say: "Don't mention
black wives before her!"

It was soon seen that Louis could not face a Scotch winter, with its
raw winds and cold, drizzling rains, and sometimes his wife felt
regrets for the sunny perch on the California mountainside, where
health and strength had once come back to him so marvellously. It was
finally decided to try the dry, clear air of Davos Platz, in the high
Alps of Switzerland, which was just then coming into prominence as a
cure for lung diseases, and in October, 1880, the little family,
husband, wife, and the boy, Lloyd Osbourne, set forth on the arduous
journey thither.

To see publishers and for other necessary business, they stopped in
London on the way, where Mrs. Stevenson was much troubled lest her
husband should suffer harm from the thick, foggy atmosphere and the
fatigue of meeting people. Because he was too weak to see many
visitors, she kept them off, which threw a sort of mystery about him,
and led to his being called in London "the veiled prophet." The only
persons she had trouble with were the doctors, who were themselves so
fascinated by his conversation that they often stayed too long. The
task of keeping his parents informed of his state was now added to her
duties, and in letters to her mother-in-law from London she says:

"As it is short and often that seems to be wanted, I thought I would
send off a note to-night to say that if nothing happens we leave
London to-morrow, and glad enough I shall be to get away.... For no
one in the world will I stop in London another hour after the time
set. It is a most unhealthful place at this season, and Louis knows
far too many people to get a moment's rest.... Company comes in at all
hours from early morning till late at night, so that I almost never
have a moment alone, and if we do not soon get away from London I
shall become an embittered woman. It is no