The boy's name is -; he and his mother are very poor. It may
interest you in her cause if I tell you this: that when I was
dangerously ill at Hyeres, this brave lady, who had then a sick
husband of her own (since dead) and a house to keep and a family of
four to cook for, all with her own hands, for they could afford no
servant, yet took watch-about with my wife, and contributed not
only to my comfort, but to my recovery in a degree that I am not
able to limit. You can conceive how much I suffer from my
impotence to help her, and indeed I have already shown myself a
thankless friend. Let not my cry go up before you in vain! - Yours
in hope,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.



Letter: TO FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON



SKERRYVORE, BOURNEMOUTH, SEPTEMBER 1886.

MY DEAR LOCKER, - That I should call myself a man of letters, and
land myself in such unfathomable ambiguities! No, my dear Locker,
I did not want a cheque; and in my ignorance of business, which is
greater even than my ignorance of literature, I have taken the
liberty of drawing a pen through the document and returning it;
should this be against the laws of God or man, forgive me. All
that I meant by my excessively disgusting reference to your