My wife begs your forgiveness; I believe for her silence.
[The following narrates the beginning of the author's labours on the
_Master of Ballantrae_. An unfinished paper written some years later in
Samoa, and intended for SCRIBNER'S MAGAZINE, tells how the story first
took in his mind. _See_ Ed. ed. Miscellanies, vol. iv., p. 297.]
[SARANAC, December 24, 1887-8.]
MY DEAR COLVIN,—Thank you for your explanations. I have done
no more Virgil since I finished the seventh book, for I have
first been eaten up with Taine, and next have fallen head over
heels into a new tale, _The Master of Ballantrae_. No thought
have I now apart from it, and I have got along up to page
ninety-two of the draught with great interest. It is to me a
most seizing tale: there are some fantastic elements, the most
is a dead genuine human problem—human tragedy, I should say
rather. It will be about as long, I imagine, as _Kidnapped_.