Taranaki 30 July 1852 My own Puss, I cannot possibly allow the overland mail of Monday to leave without sending you a letter however short although I have written you a day or two since by the 'Governor Grey'. I am still fully engaged with the various duties and arrears of work that you have partly occasioned by keeping me away from this place but if I can succeed in settling a few questions here I shall not willingly come back again unless little pet is with me. In every page I read, in every step I take, I feel dull and lonely without you, indeed the longer I am absent the more intense my love for