The letter is difficult to read, but appears to be:
33 Arthur Road
Holloway. N
6 May 1892
Dear Sir
I duly received yours of the 3rd inst. and regret to hear of your ill health and that you have been so unfortunate in business.
I do not like the idea of your hurry to dispose of your furniture for the purpose of paying your Accounts & the more particularly if the amount you owe me should have any weight in inducing you to adopt this course.
Can you not make me an offer and pay me a sum down in settlement of the whole thing.
I am sure that you no more than myself would care to have the matter dragging along but would prefer to have it settled once for all.
I hope you may be more fortunate in the future than you have apparently been lately.
Yours faithfully
?Ernest Walker
David Devant Esqre
Devant’s My Magic Life tells us that he suffered from rheumatic fever around this time. A bad bout of it stopped him performing at Christmas 1889, so losing the income from many shows and causing financial hardship. This could be the ill health that is mentioned in the letter.
In these early days of his career, Devant’s finances were not on a firm footing. Letters such as this one may have been all too familiar to him. Letters from his friend G. Gordon Powell (see N2639) are another example of his financial difficulties, this time from the failure of a show he was promoting.