Your Erstwhile Correspondent has one question about the May Day Frolic at Lord and Lady Cortland’s home. Pray tell, how can these five educated, accomplished young women be so wrong about the gentleman whom they love?

Lady Fiona Chastain, that lovely raven-haired beauty who lives with her widowed mother in Bath, thinks she is in love with a gentleman whom she met only briefly. How can one assume that a lifelong relationship will ensue if one has barely spoken to the fellow? I understand good looks can be charming, but handsome wrapping can conceal a mysterious substance. And does she even know this fellow’s name?

Her friend Lady Mary has the opposite problem in that she knows the fellow she adores far too well and he seems more friend than lover. While he shows her affection, for some odd reason, he appears reluctant to wed! What can be the matter with him?

Miss Esme Harvey, as we’ve heard from her own lips, is madly in love with her groom. But is she? Really? On the eve of her wedding, she appears…disinterested? What can be the matter? Maidenly nerves?

Their friend Lady Willa Sheffield has another problem in that she’s been engaged twice and lost both gentlemen to dour circumstances. Will she love again or is she doomed to eternal spinsterhood?

Then there is Miss Millicent Weaver. She has avoided the likes of the gentleman whom she once adored. Indeed, she swears off any other man’s attentions. We know now why, but we do understand that her friend Lady Mary has appealed to the one whom Miss Weaver adores to reconsider his avoidance of her. We pray this conflict will end. Quickly too.

These young ladies need to perk up, do their best to resolve the issues that separate them from their chosen enamoratas. We must have order in society! Weddings. Happy marriages. Babies. The Kingdom must progress, won’t you agree?