Another of the literary projects which came to naught, no one of the
stories mentioned having turned out according to Stevenson's dream
and desire at its first conception, or even having been preserved for
use afterwards as the foundation of riper work. "Clytie" is of course
the famous Roman bust from the Townley collection in the British
Museum.
[_Edinburgh, January 1875._]
MY DEAR COLVIN,--Thanks for your letter, I too am in such a state of
business that I know not when to find the time to write. Look
here--Seeley does not seem to me to have put that paper of mine in this
month; so I remain unable to pay you; which is a sad pity and must be
forgiven me.
What am I doing? Well I wrote my second _John Knox_, which is not a bad
piece of work for me; begun and finished ready for press in nine days.
Then I have since written a story called _King Matthias's Hunting Horn_,
and I am engaged in finishing another called _The Two Falconers of
Cairnstane_. I find my stories affect me rather more perhaps than is
wholesome. I have only been two hours at work to-day, and yet I have
been crying and am shaking badly, as you can see in my handwriting, and
my back is a bit bad. They give me pleasure though, quite worth all
results. However I shall work no more to-day.