I regret, most bitterly, that any chance I stood with Henrietta must be at an end. Ever since I arrived in London I have found it exceedingly difficult to judge how to behave with her, for at times she has been as at home, and at others an entirely new and incomprehensible being, who resents me treating her, in her words ‘as a child’. I have tried assiduously not to do so, but just when I think we are establishing an understanding, I appear to ruin all. I have accepted my feelings for her, do not question them in the slightest now, and at times hoped, felt, that she in some way reciprocated. However, only two nights past a rival for her hand, Mr Newbold, made a pointed remark about us as ‘siblings’. It was clearly intended to create tension between us, and I fear it upset Henrietta considerably. Her manner thereafter was agitated, and we parted somewhat at odds. However, this need not have been an irrevocable division. My impression was that it had upset her equilibrium and that had made her brittle.

Yesterday I accompanied her, with her cousin, aunt and another gentleman, Lord Martley, to see the collection of beasts at the Tower of London.

‘Ah,’ thought Sir John, ‘this at least accounts for the monkey.’

Henrietta seemed in better spirits and was not in any way antagonistic towards me. We viewed the royal jewels before the animals, and it was then that Miss Felbridge was made aware that she had left her parasol in the Jewel House. Lord Martley departed to find it, and at that moment a large monkey grabbed at her hat through the bars and she fell back against the cages. There was some immediate risk that she might be bitten, but even as I went forward to protect her, Henrietta tried to stop me, claiming that we must wait for Lord Martley to ‘rescue’ her. This was so thoughtless that I was for a moment taken aback before ignoring her plea. I did not make too much of the danger at the time, to prevent Miss Felbridge being rendered insensible as, alas, was Lady Elstead. Henrietta’s actions thereafter were those of a woman of good sense, as I would always expect her to be, but I was both perplexed and angered, there is no other word for it, at her initial response.