During her stay in my father's house the Queen quite unexpectedly
announced that she meant to give a dance. This put my mother in a
great difficulty, for my sisters had no proper clothes for a ball,
and in those pre-railway days it would have taken at least ten
days to get anything from Edinburgh or Glasgow. My mother had a
sudden inspiration. The muslin curtains in the drawing-room! The
drawing-room curtains were at once commandeered; the ladies'-
maids set to work with a will, and I believe that my sisters
looked extremely well dressed in the curtains, looped up with
bunches of rowan or mountain-ash berries.

My mother was honoured with Queen Victoria's close friendship and
confidence for over fifty years. At the time of her death she had
in her possession a numerous collection of letters from the Queen,
many of them very long ones. By the express terms of my mother's
will, those letters will never be published. Many of them touch on
exceedingly private matters relating to the Royal family, others
refer to various political problems of the day. I have read all
those letters carefully, and I fully endorse my mother's views.
She was honoured with the confidence of her Sovereign, and that
confidence cannot be betrayed. The letters are in safe custody,
and there they will remain. On reading them it is impossible not
to be struck with Queen Victoria's amazing shrewdness, and with
her unfailing common sense. It so happens that both a brother and
a sister of mine, the late Duchess of Buccleuch, were brought into
very close contact with Queen Victoria. It was this quality of
strong common sense in the Queen which continually impressed them,
as well as her very high standard of duty.