well, I will tell you; it’s my old Russian friend, Madame Z. Certain scenes are, in conception, the best I have ever made, except for _Hester Noble_. Those at the end, Von Rosen and the Princess, the Prince and Princess, and the Princess and Gondremarck, as I now see them from here, should be nuts, Henley, nuts. It irks me not to go to them straight. But the _Emigrant_ stops the way; then a reassured scenario for _Hester_; then the _Vendetta_; then two (or three) Essays—Benjamin Franklin, Thoughts on Literature as an Art, Dialogue on Character and Destiny between two Puppets, The Human Compromise; and then, at length—come to me, my Prince. O Lord, it’s going to be courtly! And there is not an ugly person nor an ugly scene in it. The _Slate_ both Fanny and I have damned utterly; it is too morbid, ugly, and unkind; better starvation. R. L. S. TO SIDNEY COLVIN 608 _Bush Street_, _San Francisco_, [_March_ 1880]. MY DEAR COLVIN,—My landlord and landlady’s little four-year-old child is dying in the house; and O, what he has suffered. It has really affected my health. O never, never any family for me! I am cured of that. I have taken a long holiday—have not worked for three days, and will not for a week; for I was really weary. Excuse this scratch; for the child weighs on me, dear Colvin. I did all I could to help; but all seems little, to the point of crime, when one of these poor innocents lies in such misery.—Ever yours, R. L. S. TO EDMUND GOSSE _San Francisco_, _Cal._, _April_ 16 [1880].