Enclosing Mr. Leslie Stephen's letter accepting the article on Victor
Hugo: the first of Stevenson's many contributions to the Cornhill
Magazine.
[_Edinburgh, May 1874._]
MY DEAR COLVIN,--I send you L. Stephen's letter which is certainly very
kind and jolly to get[14]. I wrote some stuff about Lord Lytton, but I
had not the heart to submit it to you. I sent it direct to Morley, with
a Spartan billet. God knows it is bad enough; but it cost me labour
incredible. I was so out of the vein, it would have made you weep to see
me digging the rubbish out of my seven wits with groanings unutterable.
I certainly mean to come to London, and likely before long if all goes
well; so on that ground, I cannot force you to come to Scotland. Still,
the weather is now warm and jolly, and of course it would not be
expensive to live here so long as that did not bore you. If you could
see the hills out of my window to-night, you would start incontinent.
However do as you will, and if the mountain will not come to Mahomet
Mahomet will come to the mountain in due time, Mahomet being me and the
mountain you, Q.E.D., F.R.S.--Ever yours,