The former had a legal aspect.
It was a foolscap envelope addressed to Mrs. Maldon. Rachel opened it.
A typewritten circular within respectfully pointed out to Mrs. Maldon
that if she had only followed the writers' advice, given gratis a few
weeks earlier, she would have made one hundred and twenty-five pounds
net profit by spending thirty-five pounds in the purchase of an option
on Canadian Pacific Railway shares. The statement was supported by
the official figures of the Stock Exchange, which none could question.
"Can you afford to neglect such advice in future?" the writers
asked Mrs. Maldon, and went on to suggest that she should send them
forty-five pounds to buy an option on "Shells," which were guaranteed
to rise nine points in less than a month.
Mystified, half sceptical, and half credulous, Rachel reflected
casually that the world was full of strange phenomena. She wondered
what "Shells" were, and why the writers should keep on writing to
a woman who had been dead for ages. She carefully burnt both the
circular and the envelope.
And then she looked at the post-card, which was addressed to "Louis
Fores, Esq." As it was a post-card, she was entitled to read it.
She read: "Shall expect you at the works in the morning at ten.
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