Description | ;With reference to your letter of the 17th instant I am very sorry that your portfolio of portraits should have been detained here so long. The fact is I have to consult so many people before obtaining a decision on the question of accepting such an offer as you have made that delays are inevitable; and I think the best course will be for you to have your portfolio of specimens, which have already been inspected, back; and to let me retain the catalogue, which we have already marked off against our collection of engraved portraits, and take the earliest opportunity I can of obtaining a decision as to purchasing some of the portraits in your list.' |