strongly as I do. Nevertheless it is most unwillingly that I renew the subject to you with a direct request for friendly offices and a possible prospect of its giving you still further trouble; but to do so seemed the only remaining chance of avoiding such necessity, as a communication from you might possibly still bring him to a sense of his true position in the matter. I am determined not to give his unworthy tactics the advantage of tiring me out.
However, this is not all. You will remember that Mr Heugh, at the same time with Mr Dunlop, commissioned me also for work; viz., for two water-colour drawings, one of a subject of Socrates taught to dance by Aspasia, which he saw begun, and the other to be a scriptural subject not specified. At the beginning of the present month I wrote to him saying that I was now resuming the Socrates, which would soon be finished, and asking him to what address it should then be sent. I send you his incredibly aggressive reply after a fortnight; to which I rejoined, not violently, I assure you, though of course with befitting severity on such conduct. My rejoinder produced a second letter, which I also send you, and have answered as was right. You will see that in this last letter he makes use of your name in a sense for which I am sure you will not thank him.
I send you Heugh's letters because they are at hand. Dunlop's of last and this year I have also. These people's conduct in getting introduced to me, apparently now only for the purpose of insulting and injuring me, is not merely unjustifiable but quite inexplicable. I can make nothing of it, so must lay the subject before you, with due apology for troubling you about it, and with a request for your suggestions.—Ever sincerely yours,
