Tonight was a party of sorts, and though it was strictly business, drinks flowed unabashed for an hour or two which made the evening bearable. As did the presence of Brooksby and two other dear companions.

The Skipper came first,
Remarkably witty;
And with cropped golden hair,
Remarkably pretty. 

Next came the Princess,
Flamboyantly dressed,
With long curly locks -
She must always impress.

The evening was a semi-charitable event for our beloved Boat Club; of which I have recently been elected Treasurer. I daresay I had a reasonably good time; the food was not costly and the company was not lacking. Though now I am quite exhausted, and the prospect of a most unforgiving day of writing tomorrow does not fill me with much solace for my recently failing motivation. 

I will now retire to bed, where I will undoubtedly lie awake, my mind occupied by a gentleman from my home in a Southern county, which, coincidently, lies quite close to the Duchess's Shire. My mind does not falter on improprieties when I think of him; only on how I have long wished to court him without the scathing looks of his 'delightful' foreign fiancée. We danced once, he and I; our inhibitions long lost to the haze of liquid inebriation. We walked together in the early hours of the morning back to a friends estate, where we fell into a dreamless slumber; his arm around me until I awoke to find him gone. He and his fiancée were together then, and still are now. I find it hard to bear when we go to a ball with friends; he is rarely parted from her and dotes on her so attentively as to make me sick.

But I digress dear courtiers,
To sleep I must now go,
And on the 'morrow when I awake,
More tales will I bestow.

Luthien