Mrs. Gosse had sent R. L. S. a miniature Bible illustrated with rude
cuts, picked up at an outdoor stall. "Lloyd's new work" is _Black
Canyon_.
[_Chalet am Stein, Davos, March 16, 1882._]
DEAR MRS. GOSSE,--Thank you heartily for the Bible, which is exquisite.
I thoroughly appreciate the whole; but have you done justice to the
third lion in Daniel (like the third murderer in Macbeth)--a singular
animal--study him well. The soldier in the fiery furnace beats me.
I enclose a programme of Lloyd's new work. The work I shall send
to-morrow, for the publisher is out and I dare not touch his "plant":
_il m'en cuirait_. The work in question I think a huge lark, but still
droller is the author's attitude. Not one incident holds with another
from beginning to end; and whenever I discover a new inconsistency, Sam
is the first to laugh--with a kind of humorous pride at the thing being
so silly.
I saw the note, and I was so sorry my article had not come in time for
the old lady. We should all hurry up and praise the living. I must
praise Tupper. A propos, did you ever read him?--or know any one who
had? That is very droll; but the truth is we all live in a clique, buy
each other's books and like each other's books; and the great, gaunt,
grey, gaping public snaps its big fingers and reads Talmage and
Tupper--and _Black Canyon_.
My wife is better; I, for the moment, am but so-so myself; but the
printer is in very--how shall we say?--large type at this present, and
the sound of the press never ceases. Remember me to Weg.--Yours very
truly,