Well, Dear, I am just back from Osborne. I have the salon all to myself, Bessie and Borghese are out, and I will write you all about my audience while it is fresh in my memory, but I must begin at the beginning and tell you about the Royal visit to the Nahma, which went off very well. A little before twelve Mr. Warren, Mrs. Goelet's brother, came for us and we went off at once to the yacht. The Royal party arrived very punctually, Prince and Princess, Duke and Duchess of York, Princess Victoria, and various gentlemen. They were all delighted with the yacht, particularly the Duke of York, who saw everything. He called an officer of the Osborne to see some arrangement of signals which it seems is wonderful, and said they had nothing so perfect in the Royal Yacht. Mrs. Goelet did the honours very well and simply, receiving the Princes at the gangway, with her son and daughter on each side of her, a pretty, graceful figure in her plain black dress. I remained on board to lunch after the Princes departed, and they sent me ashore at 2.30 as I had just time to dress and go to Osborne. I started again a little before 4, wearing my black taffetas trimmed with lace and a tulle bonnet and white aigrette (quite costume de ville--I could not go to the Queen in a serge skirt and big hat). I took Joseph with me in plain black livery. We arrived quite in time, as there was no delay at the ferry this time, and the large gates were open, the man making a sign to us to drive in. There were two or three policemen standing near the gate and in the park. The park is pretty--not very large but beautifully green, and as we got near the house, quantities of flowers--a mass of colour. The house is not handsome--rather imposing, a large grey stone house with two wings, and flower-beds close up to the windows. Three or four footmen in plain black livery were waiting in the hall, and they took me at once upstairs to the ladies' drawing-room--a nice room at the side of the house not looking out to sea. The Duchess of Roxburghe was waiting for me, and we talked about fifteen minutes. Then came a Highland servant saying, "Her Majesty was ready to receive _Lady_ Waddington." The Duchess and I went downstairs, walked through various galleries, and stopped at a door where there was no servant. The Duchess knocked, the Queen's voice said, "Come in," and I found myself in a beautiful large salon, all the windows opening on the sea. The Queen, dressed as usual in black, was seated in the middle of the room facing the door. I had barely time to make one curtsey--she put out her hand and made me sit down next to her. She spoke to me first in French (just as she always did when I was at the Embassy--to mark, I suppose, that I was the French Ambassadress), "Je suis tres heureuse de vous revoir--I think we can speak English--how much has happened since we met"; and then we talked about all sorts of things. I thought she looked