Called to witness a dying man’s will, the Reverend Henry Sanderson learns college friend Hugh Stires, is being disinherited as a wastrel.
Sanderson intercedes on Hugh’s behalf. He confesses his college nickname was “Satan” and that it was he who led Hugh to drink and gamble.
Satan Sanderson by Hallie Erminie Rives (Mrs. Post Wheeler)
A. B. Wenzell, Illus. 1907 bestseller #6. Project Gutenberg ebook #39689. My Grade: B-.
As he pleads for Hugh, however, Sanderson tries to recall something—anything—to suggest Hugh is capable of reversing his downward spiral.
There is none. Hugh is “a moral mollusk.”
David Stires says he wishes the resemblance between his son and Sanderson extended to more than physical appearance.
He agrees to think again before he signs his will leaving his fortune to his beautiful, blind ward, Jessica Holme.
The reprobate son reappears ready to be good long enough to woo and wed Jessica, thereby insuring he gets his father’s money one way or the other.
Sanderson realizes he not only started Hugh downhill, but aided his masquerade as reformed character.
From that set up, Hallie Erminie Rives could have aimed the plot in any of several directions.
She chose to take them all.
The novel is a patchwork plot of implausibilities performed by manikins.
Rives did give Sanderson a nice dog; he, at least, stayed in character.
© 2017 Linda Gorton Aragoni
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