A Strange Discovery

A narrator explains a long-delayed account of a notable literary discovery and recounts travel to America to settle family affairs, where a business agreement with a coal magnate frees him to remain in a small Illinois town. Taking lodgings at an old hotel, he spends idle days observing street life from his windows and consulting the hotel factotum for local gossip and identification. Through sketches of the proprietor, the talkative bell-boy, physicians and other townspeople, the narrative establishes place and character and frames the quiet, investigative attention that will lead to the discovery the narrator intends to disclose.