Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-09-16

Smith.
But he had not got his come-upance,
and those who counted upon it were
embittered by his appearance upon
the downtown streets driving a dog
cart at a criminal speed, making pc
destrianS retreat from the crossings.
and behaving himself as If he "owned
the earth"
When Mr.. George Anderson Nina
Christmastide in his sophomore year,
probably no great change had taken
place inside him, but his exterior was
visibly altered. Nothing about him
encouraged any hope that he had re-
ceived his come-upance on the con-
trary. the yearners for that stroke of
justice must yearn even more itch
ingly: the gilded youths manner had
become polite, but his pOliteness was
of a kind which democratic people
found hard TO bear.
Cards were out for a ball In his
honor, and this pageant of the ten
-antry was held in the ballroom Of the
Anderson mansion the night after his
arrival. 1t was, as Mrs. Henry Frank
lin Foster said of Isabel's wedding, "a
big Amberson-style thing" All "old
citizens" recognized as gentry received
cards, and of course so did their dane
ing descendants.
The orchestra and the caterer were
brought from away, in the Anderson
manner, though this was really ges-
ture-perhaps one more of habit than
of ostentation-for servitors of gayety
as proficient as these importatiOns
were nowadays to be found in the
town. 1t was the last of the great,
lOng-remembered dances that "every-
body talked about"-there were get
ting to be so many people in town that
no later than the next year there were
too many for Everybody" to hear of
even such a ball as the Ambersons'.
George, white-glOved, with garde-
MIA in his buttonhOle, stood with his
mother and the Major, EMPOWERED in
the big red-and-gOld drawing room
downstairs, to receive" the guests !;
and, standing thus together, the trio
offered picturesque example of good
looks persistent through three gene
rations. The Major, his daughter and
his grandson were of a type all Am
berson tall, straight and regular, with
dark eyes, short noses, good chins !;
and the grandfather's expression, no
less than the grandson's, was one of
family amused condescension. There
was a difference, however. The grand
sons unlined young face had nothing
to offer except this condescension !;
the grandfather's had other things to
say. 1t was handsome, worldly old
! face, conscious of it's Importance, but
persuasive rather than arrogant, and
not without tokens of sufferings with
stood. The Majors short white hair
was parted in the middle, like his
grandson's, and in all he stood as
briskly equipped to the fashion as the
exquisite young George.
Isabel, standing between her father
and her son, caused vague amaze
ment in the mind of the latter. Her
age, just under forty, was for George
thought of something as remote as
the moons of Jupiter: he could not
possibly have conceived such an age
| ever coming to be his own: five years
was the limit of his thinking in time
Five years ago he had been a child
not yet fourteen; and those five years
were an abyss. Five years hence he
| would be almost twenty-four; what
the girls he knew called lone of the
| older men," He could imagine himself
at twenty-four, but beyond that his
powers staggered and refused the
task. He saw little essential differ
ence between thirty eight and eighty
eight, and his mother was to him not
a woman but wholly a mother. The
woman, Isabel, was a stranger to her
son; as completely a stranger as if
he had never in his life seen her or
heard her voice. And it was tonight
while he stood with her, receiving"
that he caught disquleting glimpse
of this stranger whom he thus fleet
ingly encountered for the first time.
Youth cannot imagine romance
apart from youth. That Is why the
roles of the heroes and heroines of
plays are given by the managers to
the most youthful actors they can find
among the competent. Both middle
aged people and young people enjoy a
play about young lovers; but only
middle-aged people will tolerate a play
about middle-aged lovers; young
people will not come to see such a
play, because for them middle-aged
lovers are a joke-not very funny
one. Therefore. to bring both the
middle-aged people and the young
people into his house the manager
makes his romance as young as he
con. Youth, will indeed be served, and
it's profound instinct is to be not only
scornfully amused but vaguely an
gered by middle-aged romance. So,
standing beside his mother, George
| was disturbed by sudden impression,
| coming upon him out of nowhere, so
far as he could detect, that her eyes
were brilliant, that she was graceful
and youthful-in word that she was
Economically lovely.
He had one of those curious moments
/ that seem TO have neither a cause nor
any connection with actual things.
There was nothing in either her looks
or her manner to explain Georges un-
comfortable feeling; and yet 1t in
creased, becoming suddenly vague
| resentment, as If she had done some
thing unmotherly to him.
The fantastic moment passed; and
even while it lasted he was doing his
| duty, greeting two pretty girls with
whom he had grown up, as people say.
and warmly assuring them that he re-
membered them very well-sn assur-
ance which might have surprised them
an anybody but George Minafer!"
Ii seemed unnecessary, since he had
spent many hours with them no longer
than the preceding August. They had
| with them their OaranfS and an YYnrIa