Oakdene, Guildford Sunday morning My dear Thanks for your note altho the stir of Oxford may worry you it is not bad for you to be taken out of your shell and is so good and right for Margaret and also for the dear lady herself. I am not gaining - you know what that means and I must finally give up any hope of accompanying Agnew to North End. I hope Mr Carr1 will write me soon - the thing has to be settled now. I write Agnew telling him you will let him know what day you can shew him the picture and asking him thereafter to come down and see me here - it is desirable I should hear conclusively from Mr C. before he comes and as one never knows how in such a case a buyer may behave or how much delay there may be I feel more fit to deal with it now than I might be ten days or a fortnight or three weeks hence - probably therefore you will have A. down on Wedy or Thursday or so if you are ready. I have sold the Fortune2 to Mr Benson on the understanding that you will now take it in hand and finish it at once. I have not fixed the price as it is scarcely fair to either party to do so while it wants the glory of colour which the final glazings will give it. You had sold it at £ 1000 some years ago and it ought therefore to be worth more and will be worth more than that now. I had an idea of fixing £1250 but of course as I do not see it complete that is somewhat arbitrary. On the other hand for a replica or finished sketch and in view of the price the large one3 sold it may be quite enough. If Agnew should see and fancy either or both of the two Angels4 when in the studio I think the price should be to him £400 on no account less. He can have both if he wishes as Benson having bought the Fortune won't want the one I promised him. I am a little afraid you have not got out the Merlin and Nimue.5 I shall be sorry if you cannot go on with it as our scheme for the appropriation of the Briar Rose6 and Perseus,7 depends for success on the independent supplies of the next 18 months or so being secured. I have set my heart on that and mustn't look beyond it. Yes bring the other drawing of Frances8 to shew me when you come. I think I can remember it - but it does seem long ago. What a lot of things left undone in every life! little rays of recollection shine in of many bright designs that have been sketched or spoken of during our intercourse and that were still born! - but they say there is no such thing as effacement of what has existed - of even a thought - and so we shall likely meet them again yet. If you can let us know a day before you come to see me - I cannot see above two or three in a day comfortably and when unexpected visitors come it flurries me. But a visit from you is such a pleasure. Ever Yours affly W.G. 1 J. Comyns Carr (1849-1916), critic and dramatist. He was one of the main backers of the New Gallery, where EBJ exhibited from 1888 after the collapse of the Grosvenor Gallery. 2 The Wheel of Fortune (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne) was sold to R. H. Benson for £1,250. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, R.F. 1980-83, dated 1883. 4 Unidentified. 5 Replica of The Beguiling of Merlin : not completed. 6 Large Briar Rose series (Buscot Park). 7 Perseus series (Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart). 8 Most of EBJ's portrait drawings ot rrances Graham date from the late 1870s. For the only oil portrait, painted in 1879, see Wildman and Christian, 1998, no. 107.