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Doctor Grimshawe's Secret — a Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne
page 84 of 315 (26%)

"I thank you, my dear sir," said the young stranger, having tact enough
to laugh at Dr. Grim's joke, and thereby mollifying him a little; "but
as far as I am personally concerned, I prefer to wait a while before
making the discovery of that little spot in Mother Earth which I am
destined to occupy. It is a grave which has been occupied as such for
at least a century and a half which I am in quest of; and it is as an
antiquarian, a genealogist, a person who has had dealings with the dead
of long ago, not as a professional man engaged in adding to their
number, that I ask your aid."

"Ah, ahah!" said the Doctor, laying down his pipe, and looking
earnestly at the stranger; not kindly nor genially, but rather with a
lurid glance of suspicion out of those red eyes of his, but no longer
with a desire to escape an intruder; rather as one who meant to clutch
him. "Explain your meaning, sir, at once."

"Then here it is," said Mr. Hammond. "There is an old English family,
one of the members of which, very long ago, emigrated to this part of
America, then a wilderness, and long afterwards a British colony. He
was on ill terms with his family. There is reason to believe that
documents, deeds, titular proofs, or some other thing valuable to the
family, were buried in the grave of this emigrant; and there have been
various attempts, within a century, to find this grave, and if possible
some living descendant of the man, or both, under the idea that either
of these cases might influence the disputed descent of the property,
and enable the family to prove its claims to an ancient title. Now,
rather as a matter of curiosity, than with any real hope of success,--
and being slightly connected with the family,--I have taken what seems
to myself a wild-goose chase; making it merely incidental, you well
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