The Land of Mist by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The article by the Joint Commissioners (such was their glorious title) / aroused interest and contention. It had been accompanied by a / depreciating leaderette from the sub-editor which was meant to calm the / susceptibilities of his orthodox readers, as who should say; "These / things have to be noticed and seem to be true, but of course you and I / recognise how pestilential it all is. " Malone found himself at once / plunged into a huge correspondence, for and against, which in itself was / enough to show how vitally the question was in the minds of men. All the / previous articles had only elicited a growl here or there from a / hide-bound Catholic or from an iron-clad Evangelical, but now his / post-bag was full. Most of them were ridiculing the idea that psychic / forces existed and many were from writers who, whatever they might know / of psychic forces, had obviously not yet learned to spell. The / Spiritualists were in many cases not more pleased than the others, for / Malone had -- even while his account was true -- exercised a journalist's / privilege of laying an accent on the more humorous sides of it.

One morning in the succeeding week Mr. Malone was aware of a large / presence in the small room wherein he did his work at the office. A / page-boy, who preceded the stout visitor, had laid a card on the corner / of the table which bore the legend ‘James Bolsover, Provision Merchant, / High Street, Hammersmith. ' It was none other than the genial president / of last Sunday's congregation. He wagged a paper accusingly at Malone, / but his good-humoured face was wreathed in smiles.