The report was true, for before the Denver left Funchal the Inglefield villa was closed, and the senhora reigned supreme there; and Mr. Inglefield had gone to see his new son-in-law at Newport, and to pay his first visit to the United States.
As for Mr. Keegan, he now owns a large gold chain, attached to a large gold watch, of which he is very proud, and which he wears on all occasions. On the outside of the case is the monogram “D.K.,” very handsomely engraved, and on the inside a mysterious inscription, the purport of which Mr. Keegan has never disclosed, but which is thought to be expressive of the everlasting gratitude of two people.
Nor has his friend the master-at-arms been forgotten.
Mr. WINSTON CHURCHILL, like Mr. Wister and Mr. Crawford, has a deeper claim than residence and choice of subjects give, to the name of “American author,” since New England blood dating back on both sides to the sixteen hundreds, Southern birth, and a training in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis were united in his equipment. But after only a brief service in the navy he resigned his commission and definitely followed the leading of his literary tastes. He was for a short period with The Army and Navy Journal, during which time his first short story, “Mr. Keegan’s Elopement,” was published in The Century Magazine. Mr. Churchill became an editor of The Cosmopolitan Magazine, but left that again, to be more free for continuous original work than the routine duties connected with a monthly magazine permit.
His first book appeared in 1897,—“The Celebrity,” written in a vein of the liveliest comedy; but even then the first of his series of novels, which cover characteristic phases of American social development and will when completed present a picture of national life such as is not only unequalled, but has never been even attempted in its breadth and entirety, was well under way.
Certainly “The Celebrity,” although recognized as—
“an extremely clever piece of work that is likely to be popular as it deserves” (Boston Transcript), as “such a piece of inimitable comedy in a literary way, as has not appeared for years; the purest, keenest fun” (Chicago Inter-Ocean), as “a humorously sensational novel of a rather unusual kind, decidedly original and entertaining, one of the best pieces of construction that has appeared in a long while ... an altogether clever and out-of-the-way sort of book” (Philadelphia Evening Telegraph),
did not lead the critics to prophesy any such a second novel as Mr. Churchill’s “Richard Carvel,” which was described as—
“seldom if ever surpassed by an American romance, in breadth of canvas, massing of dramatic effect, depth of feeling, and rare wholesomeness of spirit.”—Chicago Tribune.