YES!!!! Mark it down on your calendar!

See the innertube gasket?

The tracks prove the Stag got loose!

Bob came over for tea at 11:00 and then we trudged out to the garage through the snow. Upon examination (he got in and pushed on the clutch pedal) he declared that I had some clutch. The reservoir had drained a fair amount since yesterday, and I still couldn't see where it was going. I topped it up and then got in the car to start it up. When I pushed on the clutch it was noticeably firmer than yesterday. What the heck was going on? Bob declared that the system was self-bleeding overnight. Hmm, sounds kinda mystical to me. I started her up and was able to shift smoothly and had about an inch of firmness at the bottom of the pedal movement. Shut down and then noticed a fair amount of fluid below the reservoir. The nipple that the stub hose below the reservoir attaches to on top of the master was wiggling. It's a different design than the original, which is a single casting. We siphoned off the fluid in the reservoir and removed it, then pulled the nipple right out of the master cylinder housing. It has another, larger nipple on the bottom that attaches to a grommet affair made of rubber. We theorized that the extremely cold temperatures coupled with dryness had shrunken this grommet enough to cause play and a slow leak. The solution was to make a rubber washer out of an innertube to keep positive "up" pressure on the nipple sealing it against the grommet (see pictures). It worked. Put it back together, pumped a few times and now I have 3 inches of good firm clutch in the pedal. Started up and drove around the corral for the inaugural drive! Snow and really bad tires prevented a more extensive testdrive, but all things are now possible!
On a side-note; when we were cleaning off the dash for the outside excursion, Bob showed me a key he'd found there and asked what this was for. Dammit! It is the key I was looking for yesterday for the blue car's gas cap. I must have looked there a dozen times and he finds it just like that! I think he had it hidden all this time. Would have saved me all that hassle yesterday, but I don't care now. I drove the car! Yeah!!! Now it's back to work until Christmas, but windshield fitment and new tires are on my list for Santa.