Dear Sir

I am hoth surprized and pained to find that your youngest son should have
told you matters concerning me which are totally unfounded.

There has nothing happened between Mr. Samuel H[acking] and me,
thence I have known him, which might not have been done or said in your,
or any other man's presence. But Mr. S.H. after stating things respecting
me which he knows to be contrary to facts, has it only to ascribe to himself
if now I am called upon to make a few observations.

So far from me seeking the acquaintance and society of Mr. S.H., it was
he who sought mine. If proofs should be required, they are at your disposal.
I had several reasons for not courting his intimacy. Firstly, there is a differ-
ence of age and consequently of tastes, of rather better than 50 % between
us. Secondly, he appeared to have, what I have not, plenty of spare time on
his hands. Thirdly, he appeared to me to be what is called rather "fast" and
nobody can say that I ever was or pretended to be in that line.

As to the matter in question, all I know about it, as far as I can recollect,
is this: Some months ago, on being asked I told Mr. S. H., who was my tai-
lor, that I was satisfied with him, and that I could recommend him. I did
not even know that he || had ordered any goods there until on Tuesday last,
that tailor applied to me to know who Mr. S.H. was. I then learned that an
order and along with it reference to me had been given. In reply to that ref-
erence, I told my tailor who Mr. S. H.'s father was. How I might have sus-
pected that there was anything clandestine in all this, I am at a loss to con-
ceive.

On cool reflection, dear Sir, you will, I hope, regret that in a moment of
excitement you ever credited so silly a statement. The supposition that a
man in my circumstances should go about recruiting customers for a tailor
amongst young men who may happen to have, as you say, no means what-
ever of paying their tailor's bills - is too ridiculous to be seriously refuted.

Were it not for our long business connection and the good understanding

hitherto existing between you and me, were it not for the circumstance that
I on one occasion was introduced, by your son, into your family, I should
have met it merely by a flat denial. It is only owing to these circumstances
that I have entered into much detail, but it is owing to them also that I
must be astonished at your believing such absurdities for a moment.

If other explanations should be required, they are at your disposal any
day you may be in town.

Your note leaves me hardly any other course than to inform the tailor of
what you state respecting Mr. S. H.'s capability of fulfilling his engage-
ments, as I cannot have my name mixed up any more with this transaction.