Quick to No

Okay, first query sent off in 2010, response in 4 hours, "No."
Impersonal response reminding me it's better to "know" than wait for a personal gentle let-down.
Hmmm. Not sure about that. The limbo of querying, in which all is possible for weeks until the reply comes back, was truncated today. After 4 hours, Grace was back in my court.

Time to serve an ace.

This is why having 10 queries out at a time is such a good idea.