I have taken the liberty to italicise a word or two, because in them Mr. Barrie supplied an answer to his question. "The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne!" is not an exhortation to hurry: and in Mr. Stevenson's case, at any rate, there was not the least need to hurry. There was, indeed, a time when Mr. Stevenson had not persuaded himself of this. In _Across the Plains_ he tells us how, at windy Anstruther and an extremely early age, he used to draw his chair to the table and pour forth literature "at such a speed, and with such intimations of early death and immortality, as I now look back upon with wonder. Then it was that I wrote _Voces Fidelium_, a series of dramatic monologues in verse; then that I indited the bulk of a Covenanting novel--like so many others, never finished. Late I sat into the night, toiling (as I thought) under the very dart of death, toiling to leave a memory behind me. I feel moved to thrust aside the curtain of the years, to hail that poor feverish idiot, to bid him go to bed and clap _Voces Fidelium_ on the fire before he goes, so clear does he appear to me, sitting there between his candles in the rose-scented room and the late night; so ridiculous a picture (to my elderly wisdom) does the fool present!" There was no hurry then, as he now sees: and there never was cause to hurry, I repeat. "But how is this? Is, then, the great book written?" I am sure I don't know. Probably not: for human experience goes to show that _The_ Great Book (like _The_ Great American Novel) never gets written. But that _a_ great story has been written is certain enough: and one of the curious points about this story is its title. It is not _Catriona_; nor is it _Kidnapped_. _Kidnapped_ is a taking title, and _Catriona_ beautiful in sound and suggestion of romance: and _Kidnapped_ (as everyone knows) is a capital tale, though imperfect; and _Catriona_ (as the critics began to point out, the day after its issue) a capital tale with an awkward fissure midway in it. "It is the fate of sequels"--thus Mr. Stevenson begins his Dedication--"to disappoint those who have waited for them"; and it is possible that the boys of Merry England (who, it may be remembered, thought more of _Treasure Island_ than of _Kidnapped_) will take but lukewarmly to _Catriona_, having had five years in which to forget its predecessor. No: the title of the great story is _The Memoirs of David Balfour_. Catriona has a prettier name than David, and may give it to the last book of her lover's adventures: but the Odyssey was not christened after Penelope.