March 26[?] 7 Hans Place. Dearest Father. I am rather a poor thing today with a very bad cold and I am not allowed to go out, so I shall console myself by writing to you.
The Whistler private view was rather amusing. There were a lot of very shady long haired gentlemen in brown coats - one of whom picked Auntie Maisie's pocket by the bye! - and the Rawlinsons and Bertie Crackanthorpe and some beautiful pictures - and some mad ones. Mother and I longed for at least half a dozen for our very own and certainly to a man who can do things so exquisite one can forgive some follies. I had been in the morning to the Institute where I had wandered through three dreary rooms of paint, each duller than the last which was a good preparation for the grip and originality of the Whistler pictures.

The Stanley dance was extremely successful. There were about 20 little girls and ten big ones and a few young men. We danced wildly with the children and the young men. Horace was there in great form having had the interdict against smoking removed by a venal doctor! Lady Stanley also extremely kind and with much to say about Persia and Persian. At 8 a kind of elaborate tea was provided for the children and for us a small dinner of soup and cutlets and so on. Uncle Lyulph was quite taken aback by the splendour of his party. "I knew we should have something to eat" he said "but this bloat I certainly did not expect." He amused us very much by telling us gravely that he considered Bertie Crackenthorpe quite the size of life. He was so much pleased by the success of the evening that Auntie Maisie thinks he will let her give a real grown up ball which she [letter incomplete]