Barbara feels it is necessary to decide early on what one is to do with one's life. She describes the life of two young women who keep a school in a poor part of Edinburgh. Barbara intends to lock up her colour box for six months and learn to draw. She encloses a letter from A[nna] M[ary] H[owitt], asking Bessie to return it very soon. Two pages, together with transcript and a note in Lady Iddesleigh's hand. [See GCPP Parkes 5/2 for Bessie's reply to this.]