to San Francisco that Mrs. Stevenson
interested herself in the story of a half-caste Samoan girl, a sort
of modern Cinderella, of whom she had heard before leaving the
islands. This girl, who was an orphan, had been left a fortune in
lands and money in Samoa by her American father, and when she was five
years of age had been sent to San Francisco by her guardian to be
educated. There, through a combination of circumstances, she
disappeared, and her property in Samoa lay unclaimed, while the rents
went to the benefit of others. When Mrs. Stevenson heard of this she
determined to make a search for the girl, and as soon as she reached
San Francisco set out to do so. After the rounds of all the private
schools and seminaries had been made without success, her friend, Miss
Chismore, thought of trying the charity orphan asylums, and in one of
these, a Catholic convent school for orphans, she found a girl bearing
a somewhat similar name to the lost one. Mrs. Stevenson, taking with
her a Samoan basket and some shells, immediately went out to see her.
At the school a small, dark, shy girl was brought by the sisters into
the visitors' room, and at sight of the Samoan basket she gave a
joyful cry of recognition. The long-lost heiress was found, living as
a pauper in a charity school! The difficulty then was to prove her
claim to the property and secure it for her. In her determination to
do this Mrs. Stevenson went to Washington, where, after seeing
senators, priests of the Catholic Church, and other persons in
authority, she finally succeeded in having the girl's lands, with some
of the back rents, restored to her. All this was like a fairy story to
the kind sisters at the convent, and their joy was unbounded at
seeing their little pauper pupil thus romantically transformed into
the rich princess. Meanwhile Mrs. Stevenson invited the young lady to
her house, gave a party in her honour, helped her buy clothing
suitable to her new station, and, when the time came for her
triumphant departure to claim her island possessions, went to see her
off on the steamer. As long as this little Cinderella lived she never
forgot the fairy godmother who had worked this wonderful change in her
life.

It was during this period that the regrettable incident of Mr.
Henley's attack on the memory of Stevenson occurred--an incident that
attracted a great deal more attention in England than in America,
where it was forgotten almost as soon as it happen