Rugeley,
Staffordshire,

18 Feb. 1923

My dear Colvin,

I told you last month that I had somewhere a copy of a few lines
of Louis describing a girl, a streetwalker he had known in Edinburgh in early days.
I have now turned it up among my papers, and am sure you will be interested to see
it. It proves to be from the autobiographical fragment which I have quoted in the
Life,* which chiefly describes Bob, Charles Baxter, Ferrier & Simpson. The omission of this and of the word 'prostitutes' in one place are all the suppressions of
which I can plead guilty, other than failing to describe quite unmistakably the
early relations between Louis & Fanny.**

But that is absolutely all Mr. Hellman would be able to find
among the whole material that passed through my hands. The passage is so attractive and so entirely characteristic and pleasant that I wish I had quoted it. But
twenty years ago publishers were not quite so ready to print references of the kind.***

I was very sorry for the delay in the return of the letter, due
to our absence & changing of house. We had a fortnight in Devonshire N & S. and
the South was as wet as the North.

However I have picked up again after my illness, and am getting
through my work.

My wife joins in kind regards,

* This autobiographical material may be read in the *Life*, (pp.102-112, Scribner's).

** Balfour seems to be apologizing to Colvin for with-holding private R.L.S. in-
formation from him-- which he no doubt did, as it was Stevenson wish that Balfour
and Baxter thoroughly comb his correspondence and eliminate matter of which he
was ashamed, before Colvin saw it-- see original R.L.S.-Baxter (Savile Club)
correspondence in Beinecke Collection.

*** A copy of the passage in question is included in this letter and transcript

follows:--

"And now, since I am upon this chapter, I must tell the story of Mary H-- sio. She was a robust, great-haunched, blue-eyed young woman, of admirable temper, and, if you will let me say so of a prostitute, extraordinary modesty. Every now and again she would go to work; once, I remember, for some months in a factory down Leith Walk, from which I often met her returning; but when she was not upon the streets, she did not choose to be recognized. She was perfectly self-respecting. I had certainly small fatuity at the period; for it never occurred to me that she thought of me except in the way of business, though I now remember her attempts to waken my jealousy which, being very simple, I took at the time for gospel. Years and years after all this was over and gone, when I was walking sick and sorry and alone, I met Mary somewhat carefully dressed; and we recognized each other with a joy that was, I daresay, a surprise to us both. I spent three or four hours with her in a public-house parlour; she was going to emigrate in a few days to America; we had much to talk about; and she oried bitterly (sic), and so did I. We found in that interview that we had been dear friends without knwoing it; I can still hear recalling the past in her sober Scotch voice, and I still can feel her good honest loving hand as we said goodbye."

Note:-- In July 1936, *The American Mercury* accepted from G. S. Hellman an article on the above excerpt, called, "R. L. S. and the STREETWALKER." It was written apparently to make a few dollars, its sensational title used as a selling card, and the numerous errors of statement and fact are listed in detail in a section of G. Hill's Notebook, marked, "Hellman's Errors, Surprises, and Interpretations Corrected."