KILMAINHAM,
October 17, 1881.
MY DEAR MRS. O'SHEA,—I was very much pleased to receive your two letters, which reached me safely after having been duly perused by the Governor. I am also writing to Captain O'Shea's Paris address to acknowledge his.
The last letter which you directed to Morrison's also reached me.
If you have not done so already, please inquire in London about the messages you were expecting, and about any others that may arrive in future, and let me know in your next whether you have received them.
This prison is not at all damp, although the air on the north side is rather so, but I am on the south side, and am so far exceedingly comfortable and not in the slightest degree dull. We are allowed to play ball, and you will be glad to hear that I won my first game against one of the best and most practised players in the place, although I have not played for twenty years.
I have received the Times, Engineer, Engineering, Mining Journal, Pall Mall Gazette, Universe, from a London office, also the Engineer directed in your handwriting.
Shall be delighted to hear from you as often as you care to write.—Yours always, C. S. P.
When you write again, please let me know how you are. I have been very anxious for news on that point.
October 19, 1881.
MY OWN DARLING QUEENIE,—I have just received your charming little letter of Tuesday, which I have been anxiously expecting for the last week. It has taken an enormous load off my mind. I shall send you a long letter to-morrow or next day, but for the present you had better not come over, as there are five or six other men in rooms adjacent to mine who find out about everybody who visits me. Besides, you would not be permitted to see me except in presence of two warders, and it might only make you more unhappy.