3、November 3,1949

                    14 East  94th St.
                    New York City
                    November 3,1949

Marks & Co.
84, Charing Cross Road
London, W.C. 2
England

Gentlemen:
    The books arrived safely, the
Stevenson is so fine it embarrasses my
orange-crate bookshelves, I’m almost
afraid to handle such soft vellum and
heavy cream-colored pages. Being used
to the dead-white paper and stiff
cardboardy covers of American books,
I never knew a book could be such a joy
to the touch.
    A Britisher whose girl lives
upstairs translated the ￡1/17/6 for me
and says I owe you $5.30 for the two
books. I hope he got it right. I
enclose a $5 bill and a single, please
use the 70￠ toward the price of the
New Testaments, both of which I want.
    Will you please translate your
prices hereafter? I don’t add too well
in plain American, I haven’t a prayer
of ever mastering bilingual arithmetic.

                    yours,
                    Helene Hanlf

I hope “madam” doesn’t mean over there
what it does here.

注释：
orange-crate bookshelves 用水果箱权充的书架
cream-colored 米黄色的，奶油色的
dead-white 死白色的，惨白色的
stiff cardboardy 硬纸板
￡ 英镑符号，￡1/17/6表示1英镑17先令6便士
￠美分符号，70￠表示70美分，即7角
New Testament 《新约圣经》
madam 女士,小姐; 在某些场合暗指妓院里的老鸨