September 4 Friday – Frances Nunnally wrote from Brown’s Hotel, London to Sam.

Dear Mr. Clemens,—

      Thank you so much for the invitation you have given Mother and I to come visit you at “Innocence at Home.” We should like very much to come up and spend the day with you any day that it is convenient before the twenty-sixth. I am very sorry we cannot spend more time with you, as we are very anxious to see you, but there are so many things to be attended to in New York before I go back to school and we will not have quite ten days. I shall let you know as soon as I arrive at the Waldorf, and then if you will tell us when it suits you best, we should love to come up for a day.

      We left Paris a little over a week ago and came directly here. We met a great many friends in Paris and so I enjoyed my visit there, but I don’t like the city itself nearly as much as London. One of the pleasantest days we had, was out at Versailles, where there is so much of beauty and interest to be seen. We made another excursion out to Chantilly, but I think we should have gone there before we went to Versailles. Our hotel was quite near the Louvre, so we went in there several times, but after all that, I don’t think we have seen half of the things in that enormous place. We enjoyed the pictures more than any other part of the museum, but we spent a good while looking at the beautiful “Venus de Milo.”

      After about ten days we crossed a very rough channel and came to London, where it has been raining incessantly. Just a week from tomorrow we sail and I shall be very glad to see the “Minneapolis” again, though I don’t like to think that it is carrying me back to school. / Lovingly / Francesca [MTAq 203-4].

Isabel Lyon’s journal: “Hattie & Jack” [MTP: IVL TS 63]. Note: Harriet & John Enders; see log below.