to the Prince at the
levee on the 31st of May, and I shall send him a copy, too. I am
looking forward to London with such joy. Tell Mother to send me the
Bookbuyer with her article in it. I have only read the reviews of it,
and they are so enthusiastic that I must have the whole thing quick.
It was such a fine thing to do about Poe, and to give those other two
fetishes the coup de grace. It reads splendidly and I want it all.
What did Dad think of the Inauguration article? I send you all my
dearest love and will have lots to tell you when I get back this time.

God bless you all.

DICK.

Richard left Florence the latter part of May, and went to London where
he had made arrangements to report the Queen's Jubilee. He began his
round of gayeties by being presented at Court. The Miss Groves and
Miss Wather to whom he refers in the following letter were the clerks
at Cox's hotel.

LONDON, June 2nd, 1897.

DEAR FAMILY:

I was a beautiful sight at the Levee. I wore a velvet suit made
especially for me but no dearer for that and steel buttons and a
beautiful steel sword and a court hat with silver on the side and silk
stockings that I wore at Moscow and pumps with great buckles. I was
too magnificent for words and so you would have said. I waited a long
time in a long hall crowded with generals and sea captains and
highlanders and volunteers and cavalry men and judges and finally was
admitted past a rope and then past another rope and then rushed along
into the throne room where I saw beefeaters and life guardsmen and
chamberlains with white wands and I gave one my card and he read out
"R. H. D. of the United States by the American Ambassador" and then I
bowed to the Prince and Duke of York, Connaught and Edinburgh and to
the American Ambassador and then Henry White and Spencer Eddy, the two
Secretaries and the naval attache all shook hands with me and I went
around in a hansom in the bright sunshine in hopes of finding some one
who would know me. But no one did so I went to Cox's Hotel and showed
myself to Miss Groves and Miss Wather. I went on the Terrace yesterday
with the Leiters and at O'Connor's invitation brought them to tea.
Labouchere was there and Dillon just out of jail and it was most
interesting. I am very, very busy doing nothing and having a fine
time--

DICK.

LONDON, June 21, 1897.

DEAR MOTHER:

Words cannot tell at least not unless I am well paid for it what London
is like