Nathaniel Hawthorne 
The Intelligence Office (From ‘Mosses from an Old Manse’) 

‘The Intelligence Office (From ‘Mosses from an Old Manse’)’ by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a short story in which Hawthorne creates a shadow agency where each individual is given information to help a lost soul. Working men, boarding house residents, women who have lost their beauty, and more, all find themselves encountering the grave figures of the office in search of advice and direction to a better and lighter life.