- de Banville, Coppee, Soulary, and Sully Prudhomme. But he has
not deigned to answer my letter.

I shall have another Portfolio paper so soon as I am done with this
story, that has played me out; the story is to be called WHEN THE
DEVIL WAS WELL: scene, Italy, Renaissance; colour, purely
imaginary of course, my own unregenerate idea of what Italy then
was. O, when shall I find the story of my dreams, that shall never
halt nor wander nor step aside, but go ever before its face, and
ever swifter and louder, until the pit receives it, roaring? The
Portfolio paper will be about Scotland and England. - Ever yours,

R. L. STEVENSON.



Letter: TO MRS. SITWELL



EDINBURGH, TUESDAY [FEBRUARY 1875].

I GOT your nice long gossiping letter to-day - I mean by that that
there was more news in it than usual - and so, of course, I am
pretty jolly. I am in the house, however, with such a beastly cold
in the head. Our east winds begin already to be very cold.

O, I have such a longing for children of my own; and yet I do not
think I could bear it if I had one. I fancy I must feel more like
a woman than like a man about that. I sometimes hate the children