Sharp, Rosamund to Mrs. H.G. Wells, Jan 28th

"Dear Mrs Wells, This is a bread-and-butter letter, written under exceedingly trying circumstances. I am staying with the Steeles and three of them are playing "Table-croquet," one is asking me questions, another is tuning the banjo, another is talking to the parrot. My head is in a whirl, and my pen is leaking. (They have begun to play the banjo in earnest now.) I believe what I set out to say was "Thank you very much" for everything in the past week..."