'When your book ["The Problem of China"] arrived we were away for a few days. Perhaps [...] I should have acknowledged the receipt at once. But I preferred to read it before I wrote. Unluckily a very unpleasant affair was sprung on me and absorbed all my thinking energies for a fortnight. I simply did not attempt to open the book till all the worry and flurry was over, and I could give it two clear days.'
[Hence follow three pages of commentary.]