The next day I had the following:--

"CLUMBER,
"9 _Decr_. 1862.

"MY DEAR SIR,

"It is no easy matter to give any advice as to what should be done,
especially as I do not know whether Mr. Gladstone is still in London,
though I rather imagine he has left for Hawarden.

"If Mr. Sicotte were anywhere but here (where he never ought to have
been), I should advise Messrs. Howe and Tilley to see Mr. Gladstone,
perhaps with you; but I can neither recommend them to see him
_with_ or _without_ Mr. Sicotte, so long as he is here.

"As I wrote to you yesterday, the business ought to have been closed
three days ago, for though I think. Mr. Gladstone's stipulation wrong,
it ought not to have been allowed to interfere with a final
arrangement.

"I agree with you that the new phrase about an 'uncovered loan' is not
very intelligible, but I put the same interpretation upon it that you
do.

"I am not without hope that whilst I am writing some 'leeway' may have
been recovered through Sir F. Rogers and Mr. Anderson, but, as the best
thing I can do, I propose this:

"I _ought_ to go down to Surrey, to attend Mrs. Hope's funeral on