Duffield & Marchmont, Attorneys
Endless Street, Salisbury

14th May, 1814

Miss Wentworth,

I write in the hope that this finds you, the route being uncertain, and I ask your pardon for the liberty of addressing you upon a matter of business.

It is my duty to inform you that the half-yearly remittance from Bengal, due at Michaelmas last, was not received, and that the Lady Day remittance is likewise now three weeks outstanding. This is without precedent in my time with the family.

I have written four times to Mr Pargeter at Calcutta. I have received two replies. Both were courteous and neither was an answer. He writes of the account being “presently engaged” and of “a temporary embarrassment in the realisation of certain holdings,” and he assures me of his continued attention, and he does not say where the money is.

I would not trouble you with this were there any other course. I have laid the matter before Sir Nathaniel twice. On the first occasion he was much as he has lately been and spoke chiefly of the glasshouse. On the second he signed the paper I had brought without reading it, which, madam, I did not permit, and I came away.

Your brother I have written to on three occasions. I do not believe the letters have been opened.

You will understand my difficulty. There is no one at Hawthorne Grange competent to instruct me, and I am not empowered to act alone. The Michaelmas quarter’s disbursements have been met from a sum I have advanced against my own account, which I am content to do once and cannot do indefinitely.

Should your travels bring you within reach of Calcutta, I would urge you, with all the warmth I am permitted, to call upon Mr Pargeter in person and to require of him a plain accounting. A gentleman who will write vaguely to a solicitor at four months’ distance is frequently more particular when the question is put to him across his own desk.

I remain, madam, with great respect and considerable anxiety,

Your most obedient servant,

A. Duffield