The Picture of Dorian Gray August 1889, Stoddart dined with Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and T. P. Gill at the Langham Hotel, and commissioned novellas from each writer. Conan Doyle promptly submitted "The Sign of the Four" (1890) to Stoddart, but Wilde was more dilatory; Conan Doyle's second Sherlock Holmes novel was published in the February 1890 edition of "Lippincott's Monthly Magazine", yet Stoddart did not receive Wilde's manuscript for "The Picture of Dorian Gray" until 7 April 1890, nine months after having commissioned the novel from him. The literary merits of "The Picture of Dorian Gray" impressed Stoddart, but, as an editor,
The Picture of Dorian Gray (opera) never should have mentioned the girl to Lord Henry, who retorts that Dorian will always tell him everything. Dorian then asks how Lord Henry would react at the idea that he murdered Basil Hallward. Lord Henry is dismissive and changes the topic to the mystery of Dorian's continual youth, comparing Dorian's life to his own lost youth. He asks Dorian to join him on a riding excursion the next day as he leaves. Dorian picks up a hand mirror, looks into it, then throws it down in disgust and smashes it under his feet. "Scene 7" Alone in the attic,