Fine day. The usual occupation of this day is the preparation of despatches for the post-bag tomorrow. I wrote three which occupied me pretty much all day. The only interruption was a visit from a gentleman by the name of Lore from Philadelphia, who brought me a letter from the War Department recommending him on account of an intervention to protect ships with iron, the great military device of the age. I saw Mrs Frothingham today. She looked better than I expected, and yet the traces of decline are visibly written on her face and in her motions. She seems to have borne her voyage, so that I think there is still some ground for hope that her winter’s experiment will bring her back. I hope and yet I fear. I took a short walk with my son Brooks. In the evening Sidney Brooks and Wife were here, and we made quite a large family circle.267