So I am sending this by Oswald, that you may get it before Papa arrives and know how the matter stands. All I did was to suggest he should send away fifty of his men. Even fifty is a great deal, and puts us to any amount of inconvenience, and is a source of waste and extravagance--two things which I cannot bear. I am perfectly certain you will not be able to put up with his hundred knights any more than I was. And I beg you, my dearest Regan, to do your best to make Papa listen to sense. No one is fonder of him than I am. I think it would have been difficult to find a more dutiful daughter than I have always been. But there is a limit to all things, and one cannot have one’s whole household turned into a pandemonium, and one’s whole life into a series of wrangles, complaints, and brawls, simply because Papa in his old age is losing the control of his faculties. At the same time, I own that although I kept my temper for a long time, when it finally gave way I was perhaps a little sharp. I am not a saint, nor an angel, nor a lamb, but I do hate unfairness and injustice. It makes my blood boil. But I hope that you, with your angelic nature and your tact and your gentleness, will put everything right and make poor Papa listen to reason. Let me hear at once what happens. Your loving GONERIL. _P.S._--Another thing Papa does which is most exasperating is to throw up Cordelia at one every moment. He keeps on saying: “If only Cordelia were here,” or “How unlike Cordelia!” And you will remember, darling, that when Cordelia was here Papa could not endure the sight of her. Her irritating trick of mumbling and never speaking up used to get terribly on his nerves. Of course, I thought he was even rather unfair on her, trying as she is. We had a letter from the French Court yesterday, saying that she is driving the poor King of France almost mad. _P.P.S._--It is wretched weather. The poor little ponies on the heath will have to be brought in. LADY MACBETH’S TROUBLE _Letter from Lady Macbeth to Lady Macduff_ _Most Private._ THE PALACE, FORRES, _October 10_. My dearest Flora,