A Gentleman and A Scholar

How did he reply, the immensely distinguished professor whom I have never met, but whom I asked to write the preface to one of my forthcoming books? By immediate email. With the preface itself attached. From which, though I say so myself, my reputation precedes me. I think of myself, purely objectively, as obscure, as a latter-day hermit-scribe. But, not for the first time, I am beginning to wonder.