So I leased it; and the rental
keeps me. The lease will be out in 1989--but no matter for that. Between
1871 and 1890 I had a hard time of it. I tried to repair my fortune and
couldn't do it. Then the building of skyscrapers struck Chicago, and I
came into an income through this lease. I have a good room at the
boarding house and all I wish of everything. Perhaps I shall revise my
will and leave something to Miss Sharpe. I should like to depart from
the customary bequests to hospitals and colleges. If the University
founded by Douglas had not been taken over by the money made by the
Standard Oil Company I might give something to it. Some say that the
University stands for spiritual hardness, a Darwinian scientific which
distinguished Douglas, but I am not sure. Yes, I believe I shall revise
my will in favor of Miss Sharpe. Sometimes I suspect that she wants to
marry me. She talks of nothing but the soul, as Isabel did in Rome. I am
sure I have plenty of soul. I have no one else to give my money to but
Miss Sharpe. My boy died in the middle sixties.
As for the rest, they are all gone. Zoe and I lived happily together
until the rage of the influenza in 1889; then she died. Mr. Williams,
Abigail, Aldington passed away and were buried in a cemetery about a
mile north of the river. Then their bodies were removed somewhere, for
the cemetery was turned into a park.
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