CHAPTER VII.
FIRST PLAYS When the season in Paris had reached its end, Richard returned to London and later on to Marion, where he spent the late summer and early fall, working on his Mediterranean and Paris articles, and completing his novel "Soldiers of Fortune." In October he returned to New York and once more assumed his editorial duties and took his usual active interest in the winter's gayeties.
The first of these letters refers to a dinner of welcome given to Sir Henry Irving.

The last two to books by my mother and Richard, and which were published simultaneously.
NEW YORK, November 27, 1893.
DEAR MOTHER: The dinner was very fine.

I was very glad I went.

Whitelaw Reid sat on one side of Sir Henry Irving and Horace Porter on the other.
Howells and Warner came next.

John Russell Young and Mark Twain, Millet, Palmer, Hutton, Gilder and a lot more were there.