Casting the Runes

_April 15th, 190-_
Dear Sir,
I am requested by the Council of the Association to return to youthe draft of a paper on _The Truth of Alchemy_, which you have been good enough to offer to read at our forthcoming meeting, and to inform you that the Council do not see their way to including it in the programme.
 

I am,

Yours faithfully,

--- _Secretary._

 
       *       *       *       *       *
_April 18th_
Dear Sir,
I am sorry to say that my engagements do not permit of my affording you
an interview on the subject of your proposed paper. Nor do our laws allow
of your discussing the matter with a Committee of our Council, as you
suggest. Please allow me to assure you that fullest consideration was
given to the draft which you submitted, and that it was not declined
without having been referred to judgement of a most competent
authority. No personal question (it can hardly be necessary for me to
add) can have had slightest influence on the decision of Council.
Believe me (_ut supra_).
       *       *       *       *       *
_April 20th_
The Secretary of the ---- Association begs respectfully to inform Mr
Karswell that it is impossible for him to communicate name of any
person or persons to whom the draft of Mr Karswell's paper may have been
submitted; and further desires to intimate that he cannot undertake to
reply to any further letters on this subject.
       *       *       *       *       *
'And who _is_ Mr Karswell?' inquired Secretary's wife. She had called
at his office, and (perhaps unwarrantably) had picked up the last of
these three letters, which the typist had just brought in.
'Why, my dear, just at present Mr Karswell is a very angry man. But I
don't know much about him otherwise, except that he is a person of
wealth, his address is Lufford Abbey, Warwickshire, and he's an
alchemist, apparently, and wants to tell us all about it; and that's
about all--except that I don't want to meet him for next week or two.
Now, if you're ready to leave this place, I am.'
'What have you been doing to make him angry?' asked Mrs Secretary.
'The usual thing, my dear, the usual thing: he sent in a draft of a paper
he wanted to read at the next meeting, and we referred it to Edward
Dunning--almost only man in England who knows about these things--and
he said it was perfectly hopeless, so we declined it. So Karswell has
been pelting me with letters ever since. The last thing he wanted was the
name of man we referred his nonsense to; you saw my answer to that.
But don't you