Though oft I’ve been touched by the volatile dart, To none have I grovelled but Adela Chart, There are passable ladies, no question, in art— But where is the marrow of Adela Chart? I dreamed that to Tyburn I passed in the cart— I dreamed I was married to Adela Chart: From the first I awoke with a palpable start, The second dumfoundered me, Adela Chart! Another verse bursts from me, you see; no end to the violence of the Muse. TO E. L. BURLINGAME _October_ 8_th_, 1891. MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—All right, you shall have the _Tales of my Grandfather_ soon, but I guess we’ll try and finish off _The Wrecker_ first. _À propos_ of whom, please send some advanced sheets to Cassell’s—away ahead of you—so that they may get a dummy out. Do you wish to illustrate _My Grandfather_? He mentions as excellent a portrait of Scott by Basil Hall’s brother. I don’t think I ever saw this engraved; would it not, if you could get track of it, prove a taking embellishment? I suggest this for your consideration and inquiry. A new portrait of Scott strikes me as good. There is a hard, tough, constipated old portrait of my grandfather hanging in my aunt’s house, Mrs. Alan Stevenson, 16 St. Leonard’s Terrace, Chelsea, which has never been engraved—the better portrait, Joseph’s bust has been reproduced, I believe, twice—and which, I am sure, my aunt would let you have a copy of. The plate could be of use for the book when we get so far, and thus to place it in the _Magazine_ might be an actual saving. I am swallowed up in politics for the first, I hope for the last, time in my sublunary career. It is a painful, thankless trade; but one thing that came up I could not pass in silence. Much drafting, addressing, deputationising has eaten up all my time, and again (to my contrition) I leave you Wreckerless. As soon as the mail leaves I tackle it straight.—Yours very sincerely, ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. TO E. L. BURLINGAME _Vailima_ [_Autumn_ 1891]. MY DEAR BURLINGAME,—The time draws nigh, the mail is near due, and I snatch a moment of collapse so that you may have at least some sort of a scratch of note along with the end of The Wrecker. Hurray!