| Description | She understood John's remark about his being out of touch with a post office too literally; Mrs Saxton writes to her husband every day. Mary has been balancing her accounts. She has little left in the bank, despite spending nothing she can help, including ignoring croquet club invitations at Coonoor. She gives an account of her retreat from Gray's and her present apartments, which she thinks have no deficiency. The servants are civil and attentive, she writes. She brought up five one dozen boxes of ferns, all growing. She feels better today, but this does not mean going without morphia, and her last 'brew' was purer. Dr Davis got hold of Esther when she was sent over to enquire about his wife's health, and pressed her about Mary's treatment; Esther's reply is quoted and Mary was delighted that 'ill bred curiosity should have been checked by a woman and a servant!'. Mary's maid Hale once told her that she had been instructed by her mother when first in service, not to repeat anything overheard of her master and mistress. She transcribes the text of her letter to Messrs D&W [Drew and Wilkinson] and discusses the terms of the trusteeship, and her brother Bob's actions. She refers to the outcome of the Tichborne case and the summary of Attorney General in the Pall Mall [Gazette]. |