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62

(X)

December 23,1898 

Ms. Howard Mansfield,
21 West 30th Street,
New York City. 

My dear Mansfield:-

Since my return from the east I have been confined to my house illness, and this afternoon is the first I have felt well enough to reply to your letter of the 15th instant, and even now must do so by dictation. I regret very much that you are so disappointed because of my intention to keep the Haden collection of Whistler etchings and drawings intact. Had the collection come to you and me jointly during 1890 or 1891, as we then hoped it would, doubtless a division could have been made which would have proved entirely satisfactory to everybody concerned. We, however, failed to make the purchase, for reasons known to both of us. The last conversation I had with anybody concerning the purchase for joint account occurred some four or five years ago, or perhaps even longer, between Mr. Kennedy and I, is which he declared that Mrs. Wunderlich would never consent to sell the Whistler in a single lot. I then gave up all hope of securing any part of the collection. Some two months ago I was told that the collection could be bought intact. I immediately decided to buy it, and did so without feeling the slightest obligation to divide it with you, having long since given up all expectation of buying it for joint account. If I had felt that you still hoped to buy the collection, either for joint account or for yourself individually, I would have refrained from making the purchase, for the following reasons: if you cared for the collection as

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