Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1904-01-02

A MAN WITH A. LANTERN LEADS ME TO A
LITTLE Inn.
come quite usual with me, l began to
repeat the phrase that [ had I cred
automatically before waking:
"As her husband is citizen of Rhc
Island"- .e,
Could it be possible that l had put
those words into letter addressed to
the one person in the world who
mustn't know that the young woman
in question has husband? l knew
myself too well to doubt that l had
done it. My memory, for all useful
purposes, is gone. | meet my friends
and do not know their names; | talk
with them and forget the subject
which is under discussion even while
am in the very act of discussing it.
But when | am asleep-or sunk in
that purgatory of mental stress through
which | never can quite win my way
into the heaven of sleep-I am liable
to remember anything minute details
of my boyhood, the exact turn of a
phrase or glance of an eye that mark
ed q scene of youth, but chiefly my
own faults and errors. These, whether
of long ago or of the day just done,
come into my mind with startling sud-
denness and always with absolute ac-
curacy, so far as l am able to deter
mine Sometimes | repeat aloud my
own words or those of others; some
times l utter vain protests against the
recurrence of such thoughts. but the
end is always the Same-I pass through
purgatory in the wrong direction and
am cast into the torment of Wide
awake.
The way in which this memory had
come to me stamped it as genuine.
Moreover, l have a rule for such mat
ters, and / rely upon it with a sad Ger
tainty-that which is good is dream,
that which is bad is true.
| arose, shivering, and huddled some
clothes upon me, with q heavy hooded
bath robe over them. Then ! made a
fire of sea coal in the parlor and sat
down before it to mediate upon a
state of affairs which, briefly stated,
was this:
An old gentleman named Christopher
Hooper, who lives in Sayville, on the
Maine coast, a pretty little town where
/ have spent a summer or two, had
written to me for a legal opinion upon
the status of certain property. He
particularly desired to know what
would become of it in case he should
die without a will He did not say
why he wished to die without a will,
but l was of the opinion that he might
do worse. Indeed, 1 was considerably
relieved to find that such was his in
ten''1n. If he should not change his
mind upon this point his granddaugh-
ter Gertrude Ellis, would inherit
about a quarter of a million dollars, to
the best of my knowledge and belief.
In regard to the property mentioned
in his letter asking my advice there
might be a squabble over the matter of
partition, and if litigation should arise
the situation would be complicated by
the fact that Gertrude was no longer
minor, with a legal residence in Maine
but was secretly married to Robert n.
Ellis of Rhode, Island
Ellis was a young man who had had
a little money and had lost it through
negIecting the advice of Christopher
Hooper This was a serious offense.
but he had cut himself off from pardon
by taking a position on newspaper.
Mr.. Hooper despised all newspapers as
a result of having been abused by one
Of them in the course of a political
campaign in 1868. Ellis had met
Gertrude in summer vacations, as I