My dear Charlie: --

I returned from the Harwich boat which I had been waiting for an hour in the rain with my heart as heavy as lead. No letter and no Charlie. I have already been here since Tuesday counting the hours till the boat should arrive and each day fearing to receive a letter from you that you wouldn’t come. I had no letter so was sure you would be on board. Imagine my disappointment! I returned to the house and in a few hours got yours from Edinburgh saying you couldn’t come now. It is a pity you didn’t write a day or two sooner for [page 2] I have lost much precious time on my pictures.

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Francis Davis Millet's painting "A Turkish Waterseller," 1874.

I have the nigger [a Millet painting of a black man, "A Turkish Waterseller"] and the large one waiting the exposition.[1] Now that I have no need to wait in Antwerp I shall hurry to Brussels to work on them. Thursday they must be in the exposition. It is also a pity that you can’t be here for Monday. There is an immense celebration in Malines such as is rarely seen here and you could make much money out of it because it is intensely Flemish and [has] never been written up.

My plans are as follows. When you can make a quick and cheap trip through Holland starting from Antwerp about the 18th and returning in a week cost about 100 francs, or less. Then if I [page 3] have money (I am pretty short, 500 francs goes slap for frames) I would like to take you to Ghent & Bruges. I must not travel much else. I can’t go home. I’ve only 1200 francs now. Passage will take 400 & frames 500 francs. Come on do, direct to Brussels via Ostend it is better for you since now I cannot come to Antwerp to meet you again. I can’t possibly spare the time. If you have money come direct through to Brussels. At the station there get a cab to take you to the enclosed address where I now have a studio; Give the card to the coachman he will take you right there. [page 4] If it happens to be evening and I am away, the woman will give you my address, that is my hotel. So I hope to see you there by Tuesday. I shall return here Thursday evening and stop at the Hotel du Nouveau Jardin in the Rue aux Lits. So write me to the consulate or to the Hotel Nouveau Jardin Antwerp unless you come to Brussels before Thursday.

I am sorry not to see you today old boy but hope our meeting is only put off for a day or two.

Yours in haste with very much love

Frank

Notes

1. Jonathan Ned Katz comments: "It's disturbing to find a historical character one likes using a nasty racial epithet. But such epithets well illustrate the casual racism of the time." The Waterseller painting is discussed by Engstrom, Francis Davis Millet, 68-70.