Letter, North House to an Enquirer

Dear Dr Halloran —

Your letter of 12 April is answered in the ordinary way, on paper, by someone who has read it.

You ask for a statement on behalf of the Institute as a whole. We cannot give one. One House does not answer for another, and a paper signed here would be quoted at houses that never saw it.

You ask why the reconciliation falls in February rather than at the year's end. The House has no present answer. It has been February since 1977 and the reason, if there was one, was not written down.

You ask for the 1977 definition of a period of separation. It is enclosed as it stood, beside the wording as it stands, which is how we print them.

You ask, finally, what became of the papers you were told existed. Two folders are held outside the Record because they cannot be dated or attributed; they may be read here by appointment. Of anything beyond them, no account is held.

You would be welcome at an open evening. The table is laid at seven, the room may be left at any point, and nothing follows from it.

— E. Hargreaves, steward