The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson for Boys and Girls

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He lodged with a doctor and his wife, and took his meals at the little
restaurant kept by Jules Simoneau, "a most pleasant old boy," with whom
he played chess and discussed the universe daily.

About the middle of December he pushed on to San Francisco, and prepared
to settle down and work for an indefinite time. Though he had known but
few people in Monterey, nevertheless it was a social little place in
comparison to a great city like San Francisco, where Stevenson found
himself indeed a stranger and friendless and learned for the first time
in his life what it really meant to be lonely.

Funds were running low; so he secured the cheapest possible lodging and
took his meals at various small restaurants, living at the rate of
seventy cents a day.

On December 26 he wrote: "For four days I have spoken to no one but my
landlady or landlord or the restaurant waiters. This is not a gay way to