Bessie and Barbara are going to Blidah, thirty miles inland. She will then be going on to either Rome or Naples. She says Mary’s ‘picture of Halsted’ [Halstead, Essex] and her work there is cheering. The Waverley Journal will not bear Bessie’s name unless it is to be run by her and Isa Craig alone. She relates a large quantity of information about Madame Luce [Eugenie Luce] from a lengthy conversation she had with her. She has been working on a translation of a memoir of Rosa Bonheur for the Waverley. She has had an ‘odd conversation’ with Barbara [Leigh Smith] about love and friendship.