December 29 Monday – Sam and Stoddard returned to London. Sam wrote from London to Livy. Sam had taken offense to an innocent remark a man had made about his cable-gramming Livy on Christmas Eve being the sort of thing a man did for a sweetheart not a wife. The man apologized and Sam got to write about it. Sam enclosed an invitation from Shirley Brooks for New Year’s Eve and a note of best wishes from George MacDonald, who suggested it would be “great fun” if they wrote a play together [MTL 5: 536].

Sam dictated to Stoddard for Tom Taylor (1817-1880), a great playwright whom Sam sought advice from about putting The Gilded Age on stage. Sam received his first copy of the book from Routledge; editors had received review copies even earlier [MTL 5: 541 to Warner].