not in its passion and
mystery, but in its lighter moods of humor and sentiment. Paris
frankly seemed to him at this time the most profitable place in the
world. Two months after his arrival, he wrote airily, "You will excuse
the shortness and hastiness of this letter, for which I can only plead
as an excuse that I am a young man and in Paris." He had momentary
fancies as to a possible direction for his talents. A sudden intimacy
at Rome with Washington Allston made him think for a time of turning
painter. He was something of a dandy, and puts on record a Paris
costume of "gray coat, white embroidered vest, and colored
small-clothes." Presently he left Paris for London, where Kemble and
Mrs. Siddons seem to have pleased him more than anything else English.
Three months later he set sail for New York, and arrived in March,
1826, after an absence of nearly two years.

Irving was now twenty-three years old. All that he had done so far was
haphazard enough. He had trifled with his schooling, loitered over his
law, read a great deal at random, seen many theatres, and made many
friends. He had escaped from the valley of the shadow, and was now
free to go on in the primrose way of much society, little literature,
and less law. For the next ten or twelve years he was to be little
more than a petted man about town.

II

MAN ABOUT TOWN

At that time New York was hardly more than a big village, such as
Boston continued to be for a half-century later. Everybody (who was
anybody) knew everybody else in the friendly and informal way which
nowadays belongs to a "set." Conviviality--this dignified name of the
thing best suggests the way in which it was looked at then--was as
much a part of fashionable life in New York as in Edinburgh or London.
Into this society Irving entered with zest, flirting, dancing,
tippling with other young swaggerers according to the mode. He went
back nominally to his legal studies, but was really very little
concerned with law or gospel. Of this kind of life, "Salmagundi," the
first number of which, appeared in January, 1807, was the legitimate
outcome. It was made up of short satirical sketches of the
"Spectator" type. Irving and J. K. Paulding were the principal
contributors, but they had some assistance from William Irving and a
few others. In the course of a year twenty numbers were published at
irregular intervals, when they suddenly ceased to appear. The authors,
who wrote under fictitio