Strong_, _at intervals between January_ 1893 _and October_ 1894 (_see_ Vailima Letters, _pp._ 242â246, 299, 324 _and_ 350).  _About six weeks before his death he laid the story aside to take up_ Weir of Hermiston.  _The thirty chapters of_ St. Ives _which he had written_ (_the last few of them apparently unrevised_) _brought the tale within sight of its conclusion_, _and the intended course of the remainder was known in outline to Mrs. Strong_