A half-finished letter, written in a flowing hand rendered no more legible by the eccentric spelling and total lack of punctuation.

His fingers strayed aimlessly over the objects on the table: the quill, a small knife to sharpen it; the ink container, the sanding box; a half-finished letter to a commission merchant in Nassau.

Jamie was sitting at his desk, twiddling a quill and staring at a half-finished letter.

The screen crackled and cleared and revealed a half-finished letter.

Copywriter Victor Dean has died in a fall down the spiral iron office staircase, but he left a half-finished letter to the management hinting that something potentially scandalous is going on at Pym's.

He read each half-finished letter carefully.

James wasn't sure what he had pictured, but the disorder here was comfortingly familiar: piles of papers, books weighted open with other books, half-finished letters.

Well then," said the girl, who had sat down at my table and was reading a half-finished letter lying there, "shouldn't we leave now?

She paused at the desk, looking down at a half-finished, multipaged letter.

I write you this because, to your surprise perhaps, I have grazed through your poems as a chance visitor to your room might, noting a pair of green slippers dropped beside the bed and a half-finished letter on the desk - which I have read.