e,
5300 Deming Place,
Chicago, Ill.

Dear Madam:

I have your inquiry of May the ninth concerning my former
chauffeur, Gaston Duval.

I am very glad to recommend him. He is sober and honest, and I
always found him thoroughly dependable during his fifteen
months in my employ. He drives well and is an expert
mechanician.

Yours very truly,
K. G. Evans,
(Mrs. John Evans)

500 Park Avenue,
New York, N. Y.,
May 13, 1922.

Mrs. Samuel Duke,
5300 Deming Place,
Chicago, Ill.

Dear Madam:

I have your inquiry of May the ninth concerning my former
chauffeur, Gaston Duval.

I hope that you will not think me discourteous but I should
much prefer not to discuss him.

Yours very truly,
K. G. Evans.
(Mrs. John Evans)

(In letters which in effect decline to give a recommendation it is wiser
not to set out facts or even actually to decline to give the
recommendation. See Chapter XI on the Law of Letters. The following
letter to a servant, which is an indirect way of declining to recommend,
is on the danger line.)

_To a servant_

Harbor View,
Long Island,
August 29, 1921.

My dear Margaret,

Mrs. Hubert Forbes has written me concerning your
qualifications as cook, and asks if I would recommend you in
every way. Also I have your request to me for a reference.

With regard to your skill in cooking there can be no question.
I can recommend you as having served me for two years and I
can vouch for your honesty. But, as you know, you are not to
be depended on--for instance, to return promptly after your
days off or to do any work at all during your frequent
disputes with the butler.

This I have told Mrs. Forbes. I could not conscientiously do
otherwise; but I have asked that she try you in the hope that
you have decided to remedy these faults.

Very trul