[London, before 19 January 1890] 
[Draft] 

Dear Charles, 

Within two months of your engaging Percy you wrote to me asking 
for a loan, and in terms which hardly could leave any doubt of your 
intention to terminate that engagement unless I acceded to your wish. 

* George W. Reid — > See this volume, p.436 

And as soon as I had replied in the negative, you did terminate it. You 
can hardly deny, that if you intended to convey the idea that the engage- 
ment was a mere preliminary to the loan, you could not have done it 
better. But you now say there was no connection whatever between the 
two, and of course I am bound to believe you. 

Yours sincerely 

FE.