12 May

Three days until the Charity Ball. We are to have a gross of confetti, which will drop at midnight. Nearly all the guests will be coming down from London specially, and the band will be mae up entirely of members of the London Philharmonic, so we will have all the bedrooms and guest houses quite full. The excitement in the air is quite palpable, and the house staff are scurrying about like a thousand mice, only bigger of course.

Ernest increasingly distressed at being excluded from the ball. He hopes some day we will hold a charity ball for him.