Written in Paris on his way home to Edinburgh. Some of our talk at
Mentone had run on the scheme of a spectacle play on the story of the
burning of the temple of Diana at Ephesus by Herostratus, the type of
insane vanity _in excelsis_.
[_Hotel St. Romain, Paris, end of April 1874._]
MY DEAR COLVIN,--I am a great deal better, but still have to take care.
I have got quite a lot of Victor Hugo done; and not I think so badly:
pitching into this work has straightened me up a good deal. It is the
devil's own weather but that is a trifle. I must know when Cornhill must
see it. I can send some of it in a week easily, but I still have to
read _The Laughing Man_,[13] and I mean to wait until I get to London
and have the loan of that from you. If I buy anything more this
production will not pay itself. The first part is not too well written,
though it has good stuff in it.
My people have made no objection to my going to Goettingen; but my body
has made I think very strong objections. And you know if it is cold
here, it must be colder there. It is a sore pity; that was a great
chance for me and it is gone. I know very well that between Galitzin and
this swell professor I should have become a good specialist in law and
how that would have changed and bettered all my work it is easy to see;
however I must just be content to live as I have begun, an ignorant,
_chic-y_ penny-a-liner. May the Lord have mercy on my soul!
Going home not very well is an astonishing good hold for me. I shall
simply be a prince.
Have you had any thought about Diana of the Ephesians? I will straighten
up a play for you, but it may take years. A play is a thing just like a
story, it begins to disengage itself and then unrolls gradually in
block. It will disengage itself some day for me and then I will send you
the nugget and you will see if you can make anything out of it.--Ever
yours,