ABSTRACT
I am fairly puzzled as to an answer to give you, as I had led Mrs Morris to understand that I could in no way advise her to accept the estimate you had given me – even if she had been willing to do so; therefore she reluctantly gave up the thought of building under such circumstances. Even now, I fail to see that the comparatively small drop in prices of labour and materials would allow you to make suffi cient difference in a fresh estimate, if it was made in the way of the former, and I am disinclined to put Mr Jack to the inconvenience, and loss of time in again entering on fresh explanations for reasonable estimating. He has done several works since then, and has found no diffi culty in obtaining intelligible estimates from builders in various parts of the country, and in getting the works carried out in a business-like and satisfactory way. Therefore, before I could ask him to enter on this cottage matter once more, for he is busy, I think it would be better for you to send me a preliminary memorandum towards further negociation, stating the per-centage you would offer to take off the total of your former impossible amount. This would guard him against waste of time in a doubtful reentering on a more reliable form of procedure.
