My dear Susan I came home rather early from mess tonight that I might not lose an opportunity of having a few lines ready to send you by tomorrow's mail. I hope ere this that you have paid your visit with Mamma to Govt House and that you have enjoyed or prospectively intend to enjoy the ball you allude to as well as the other parties notwithstanding your disapproval of a repetition of such grand public entertainments which are just the very things that young ladies and gentlemen of the present day are so fond of but I quite agree with you that private evenings at home surrounded by a few cheerful friends are much more agreeable than your stiff starched displays of female fashion setting everything else in the room men included into perfect obscurity by the wonderfully extravagant style of your dresses but as young ladies are generally indulged in this particular as well as in too many others by kind mammas the least I trouble myself on the subject the better. Young Petre came in from Wellington this afternoon. He brings no news. It seems however that you seldom have any at Wellington. I have several amusing anecdotes to relate to you when I get to Dalmuir which may I trust be about the time you mention in your note. It is getting very late and having a great deal to attend to in the morning I must ask you to excuse this hasty epistle from Yours sincerely Donald McLean The expeditious manner in which you wrote "Kathleen Mavourneen" is not forgotten. Can I get a review of the book you are reading or biographical sketches of the characters you meet such as Rankins Popes etc but this is really asking too much.