[40] In those days of high postage Scott's bill for
letters "seldom came under 150_l._ a year," and "as to coach parcels,
they were a perfect ruination." On one occasion a mighty package came
by post from the United States, for which Scott had to pay five pounds
sterling. It contained a MS. play called _The Cherokee Lovers_, by a
young lady of New York, who begged Scott to read and correct it, write
a prologue and epilogue, get it put on the stage at Drury Lane, and
negotiate with Constable or Murray for the copyright. In about a
fortnight another packet not less formidable arrived, charged with a
similar postage, which Scott, not grown cautious through experience,
recklessly opened; out jumped a duplicate copy of _The Cherokee
Lovers_, with a second letter from the authoress, stating that as the
weather had been stormy, and she feared that something might have
happened to her former MS., she had thought it prudent to send him a
duplicate.[41] Of course, when fame reached such a point as this, it
became both a worry and a serious waste of money, and what was far
more valuable than money, of time, privacy, and tranquillity of mind.
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