The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

three new arrivals, Americans, a Mrs. Osbourne and her young son and
daughter. Their home in California had been broken up and the mother had
come to Grez to paint for the summer.

Those who had been there for a number of years, R.L.S. among them,
looked on the newcomers as intruders and did not hesitate to say so
among themselves. Before the summer was over, however, they were
obliged to confess that the newcomers had added to the charms of Grez,
and Louis found in Mrs. Osbourne another companion to add to his rapidly
growing list.

When the artists scattered in the autumn and he returned to Edinburgh
and Mrs. Osbourne to California, he carried with him the hope that some
time in the future they should be married.

For the next three years he worked hard. He published numerous essays in
the _Cornhill Magazine_ and his first short stories, "A Lodging for the