Neither _The Stepfather's Story_ nor the _St. Michael's Mounts_ essay
here mentioned ever, to my knowledge, came into being.
[_Penzance, August 1877._]
... You will do well to stick to your burn, that is a delightful life
you sketch, and a very fountain of health. I wish I could live like
that, but, alas! it is just as well I got my "Idlers" written and done
with, for I have quite lost all power of resting. I have a goad in my
flesh continually, pushing me to work, work, work. I have an essay
pretty well through for Stephen; a story, _The Sire de Maletroit's
Mousetrap_, with which I shall try Temple Bar; another story, in the
clouds, _The Stepfather's Story_, most pathetic work of a high morality
or immorality, according to point of view; and lastly, also in the
clouds, or perhaps a little farther away, an essay on _The Two St.
Michael's Mounts_, historical and picturesque; perhaps if it didn't come
too long, I might throw in the _Bass Rock_, and call it _Three Sea
Fortalices_, or something of that kind. You see how work keeps bubbling
in my mind. Then I shall do another fifteenth century paper this
autumn--La Sale and _Petit Jehan de Saintre_, which is a kind of
fifteenth century _Sandford and Merton_, ending in horrid immoral
cynicism, as if the author had got tired of being didactic, and just had
a good wallow in the mire to wind up with and indemnify himself for so
much restraint.
Cornwall is not much to my taste, being as bleak as the bleakest parts
of Scotland, and nothing like so pointed and characteristic. It has a
flavour of its own, though, which I may try and catch, if I find the
space, in the proposed article. _Will o' the Mill_ I sent, red hot, to
Stephen in a fit of haste, and have not yet had an answer. I am quite
prepared for a refusal. But I begin to have more hope in the story line,
and that should improve my income anyway. I am glad you liked _Villon_;
some of it was not as good as it ought to be, but on the whole it seems
pretty vivid, and the features strongly marked. Vividness and not style
is now my line; style is all very well, but vividness is the real line
of country; if a thing is meant to be read, it seems just as well to try
and make it readable. I am such a dull person now, I cannot keep off my
own immortal works. Indeed, they are scarcely ever out of my head. And
yet I value them less and less every day. But occupation is the great
thing; so that a man should have his life in his own pocket, and never
be thrown out of work by anything. I am glad to hear you are better. I
must stop--going to Land's End.--Always your faithful friend,