gentleman.' To sup afterwards with these clothes on, and a
wonderful lot of gaiety and Shakespearean jokes about the table, is
something to live for. It is so nice to feel you have been dead
three hundred years, and the sound of your laughter is faint and
far off in the centuries. - Ever your faithful

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.


WEDNESDAY. - A moment at last. These last few days have been as
jolly as days could be, and by good fortune I leave to-morrow for
Swanston, so that I shall not feel the whole fall back to habitual
self. The pride of life could scarce go further. To live in
splendid clothes, velvet and gold and fur, upon principally
champagne and lobster salad, with a company of people nearly all of
whom are exceptionally good talkers; when your days began about
eleven and ended about four - I have lost that sentence; I give it
up; it is very admirable sport, any way. Then both my afternoons
have been so pleasantly occupied - taking Henley drives. I had a
business to carry him down the long stair, and more of a business
to get him up again, but while he was in the carriage it was
splendid. It is now just the top of spring with us. The whole
country is mad with green. To see the cherry-blossom bitten out
upon the black firs, and the black firs bitten out of the blue sky,
was a sight to set before a king. You may imagine what it was to a
man who has been eighteen months in an hospital ward. The look of
his face was a wine to me.

I shall send this off to-day to let you know of my new address -
Swanston Cottage, Lothianburn, Edinburgh. Salute the faithful in