My brother Ernest Rhys1 has given me a letter of introduction to you.2 Our visit to America is a very short one. We leave early tomorrow for a little tour including Niagara & will not be home to our steamer till Saturday night.
The Captain says we may have to leave on Tuesday or Wednesday. So we
have only Monday on which we can avail
ourselves of the privilege of seeing you—if
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therefore you can be troubled with a visit from two girls who would
dearly like to see you, we will come on that day—Ernest said
Mr Gilchrist3 would be
at Camden, but he gave us no address.
Hoping we shall not return to England disappointed at not seeing you
Believe me Sincerely yours Edith Rhys—Correspondent:
Edith Rhys, who was involved
in music and in British theatre as an actor and director (she directed and acted
in the production of one of Ernest Rhys's plays, The Masque of
the Grail, in 1908 at the Court Theatre), was Ernest Rhys's sister. She
visited Whitman in June of 1887; Whitman briefly describes the visit in his
letter to Ernest Rhys of June 26, 1887. She began
study at the London Academy of Music the following year. See also Rhys's letters
to Whitman of March 2, 1889, and of January 3, 1888.