Wednesday 28th December

It is no surprise that I now have an awful cold. Fanny said ‘that will teach you to go bathing in the canal at this time of year.’ I gave her such a look. Mama prescribed a peppermint lozenge but I said I did not care for the taste and would suffer in silence.

‘If only that were true,’ said my (dear!) sister.

Papa, meanwhile, came home late in the evening, evidently in high spirits. He rushed upstairs and told me, in a confidential whisper, that he had been worshipping the Goddess Fortuna – i.e. he had won something at cards – and gave me sixpence pocket-money. I put the money straight into my penny pig. Mama, however, somehow found out about Pa’s winnings. She positively refused to talk to him over supper, leading to an awful silence and the most profound domestic disharmony.

Sixpence, though.