Dear Theo,

I have received your gift, included in a letter to me, of a guilder intended for the purchase of a pair of cuff links. I thank you very cordially, old man, but you should not have, I have more money than necessary.

Thanks for the letter which I received this morning. I was very glad to hear that Mauve is engaged to Jet Carbentus. That is fine…I was pleased to hear that you are doing so well.

You have done well to read the book by Burger; you should devour books on art as much as possible, especially The Gazette de Beaux-Arts, etc. By all means try to get a good knowledge of pictures. That picture by Apol we have here now is good, but last year he painted the same subject and I thought it was better and brighter than this one.

I am glad that you go to see Uncle Cor now and then; he has pictures and prints which you can never see at the house in The Hague.

I, too, am very busy just now and am glad of it, for that is what I want. À Dieu, boy, keep in good spirits. I wish you well. Greetings to Iterson.

Vincent