Well, my dearest Queen, here am I running on about myself, as if I were not actually EXPIRING to hear about you. What my feelings were when I called at your house on that _fatal Tuesday_ and was told that you had gone to spend the summer on a _farm_ in the _depths_ of the country, passes my _power_ to tell. I could not ask your mother many questions, for you know I am always a little bit AFRAID of her, though she is _perfectly lovely_ to me! She was very quiet and sweet, _as_ _usual_, and spoke as if it were the most _natural_ thing in the _world_ for a brilliant society girl (for that is what you _are_, Hilda, even though you are only a school-girl; and you NEVER can be anything else!) to spend her summer in a wretched farm-house, among _pigs_ and _cows_ and dreadful ignorant people. Of course, Hilda dearest, you know that my admiration for your mother is _simply_ IMMENSE, and that I would not for _worlds_ say _one syllable_ against her judgment and that of your _military angel_ of a father; but I MUST say it seemed to me MORE than strange. I assure you I hardly closed my eyes for several nights, thinking of the MISERY you must be undergoing; for _I_ KNOW you, Hildegarde! and the thought of my proud, fastidious, high-bred Queen being condemned to associate with _clowns_ and _laborers_ was really MORE than I could bear. Do write to me, darling, and tell me HOW you are enduring it. You were _always_ so sensitive; why, I can see your lip curl _now_, when any of the girls did anything that was not _tout a fait comme il faut_! and the _air_ with which you used to say, "The _little_ things, my dear, are the _only_ things!" How _true_ it is! I feel it more and more _every_ day. So _do_ write _at once_, and let me know _all_ about your dear self. I picture you to myself sometimes, pale and thin, with the "_white disdain_" that some poet or other speaks of, in your face, but enduring all the HORRORS that you must be subjected to with your OWN DIGNITY. Dearest Hilda, you are _indeed_ a HEROINE! Always, darling, Your own deeply _devoted_ and _sympathizing_ MADGE.