25、April 9,1951

        MARKS & CO., Booksellers
         84, Charing Cross Road
             London, W.C. 2

                          9th April, 1951

Miss Helence Hanff
14 East 95th Street
New York 28, New York
U.S.A.

Dear Miss Hanff,
    I expect you are getting a bit worried
that we have not written to thank you for
your parcels and are probably thinking
that we are an ungrateful lot. The truth
is that I have been chasing round the
country in and out of various stately
homes of England trying to buy a few books
to fill up our sadly depleted stock. My
wife was starting to call me the lodger
who just went home for bed and breakfast,
but of course when I arrived home with a
nice piece of MEAT, to say nothing of
dried eggs and ham, then she thought I was
a fine fellow  and was forgiven. It is a
long time since we saw so much meat all in
one piece.
    We should like to express our
appreciation in some way or other, so we
are sending by Book Post today a little
book which I hope you will like. I
remember you asked me for a volume of
Elizabethan love poems some time ago—well,
this is the nearest I can get to it.

                        Yours faithfully,
                        Frank Doel
                        For MARKS & Co.

附在书上的小卡片：

CARD ENCLOSED WITH ELIZABETHAN POETS:

    To Helence Hanff, with best
    wishes and grateful thanks for
    many kindnesses, for all
    at 84, Charing Cross Road, London.
    April, 1951.

注释：

My wife was starting to call me the lodger who just went home for bed and breakfast.
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