The queen’s health and state of mind do not improve although she has now taken to odd behaviour to add to her mysteries. She will jump up suddenly in the middle of a group of her ladies in waiting and disappear, sometimes for more than two hours. Nobody knows where she goes or what she does. She is known to spend much time sitting and gazing at a portrait of the king she likes very much and also to wander through the kitchens, looking for all the world as though she is inspecting everything and everybody. She is also known to be in and even seen in her privy chamber and then suddenly, she has departed, and nobody can tell where she is headed.
Today she has the usual grim, weary expression and signs a sheaf of papers I hand to her without so much as a glance at their contents. She could ea
