Dear Elizabette,

I am afraid that this will not be a long epistle as I am writing after curfew. As this activity is Strictly Prohibited I shall be forced to leave off in a hurry if I hear Matron coming. So, consider yourself warned.

I do hope that you survived Mr. Ramstickle and all has returned to normal again in that house. How unfortunate that you should have to listen to such a silly woman as Miss Ramstickle sounds. I think you ought to find something else to occupy your time. If your mother is so insistent upon your learning something useful, perhaps you could suggest apprenticing to an Explorer? There is plenty to do in the New World I am sure and I doubt that men in such climes require women of their acquaintance to be proficient in three languages. However, upon reflection, perhaps men in such climes are not at all suitable company for a young lady of quality. Oh! I have hit on the perfect scheme! You must disguise yourself as a boy and go to sea, have complicated and hair raising adventures involving rats and some kind of tangled love triangle (which somehow works itself out), be kidnapped, meet savages (do you think Aubrey counts?), find New Lands and return home triumphant and established. It is perhaps a trifle fantastical, but I feel that even adventures involving rats would be an improvement upon persons responding to such an inelegant name as Ramstickle must be considered.

Or you might take up astronomy and spend your time Gazing at the Stars – though that seems rather less exciting than my first suggestion and I imagine you would not like it quite so well. And I suspect that sciences like astronomy require various delicate apparati and that would not be the thing for you - keeping the Punch Bowl Incident in mind.

A Novelist would be just the thing! You could live in a cottage in a positively Arcadian situation with a sublime prospect (to inspire you) and a large intellectual writing table under the window looking over it. You could write shocking tales under an assumed name and take the Polite World by storm! All would speak of your books! They would decorate every drawing room table! Mystery would surround the famous authoress. All the best Ton would boast of knowing her, though none could be sure who she was! To be sure, I am not at all convinced that this would suit either since you neither familiar with nor very interested in polite society as a rule. And I imagine they would not be at all interested in your shocking novels unless these tales were about them. And it is far more likely that your shocking novels would be about fossils. Perhaps you could be a famous antiquary? I think you would do well gadding all over in search of new discoveries-

Dash it – Matron is coming!

Tuesday morning:
I was going to add to this, but seeing as it reached a perfectly respectable length, and I have nothing further to add, I shall send it as it is. I shall hope to hear from you soon.

Your affectionate cousin,
Pippa