grey 's days were a blur of activity , rushing from whitehall offices to shipping offices , holding daily councils of war with the other officers , receiving and reviewing daily reports from the captains , writing daily summary reports for the colonels , reading orders , writing orders , hastily donning dress uniform and dashing out to leap on a horse in time to take his place at the head of a column to march through the london streets in a guildhall procession to the cheers of a crowd , then throwing the reins to a groom and brushing the horsehair from his uniform in a carriage on his way to a ball at richard joffrey 's house , where he must dance with the ladies and confer in corners with the gentlemen , the ministers who ran the machine of war , and the merchants who greased its gears .