The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-11-20

and yen said had q mean little mint
! for thinking there might be truth q
what Aunt Amelia said about pe)pl
I talking. You denied ii. And tha
\ wasn't the only time; you'd attacke,
/ me before then. because intimate,
that Morgan might he coming here 10,
often. You made me believe tina
mother let him come entirely on you
account. and now you say
Il think he did" Fanny interrupte,
desolately. Il think he did come a!
much 10 see me as anything-for {
while il looked like IT, He did act /
good deal that way-and IL Wilbur
hadn't died"
You told me there wasn't AM
talk"
Il didn't think there was much
then" Fanny protested. Il didnr
know how much there was"
"WhatV
People don't come and tell such
things TO a persons family, you know
You don't suppose anybody was going
10 say 20 George Anderson that his
sister was getting herself talked about
do you? Or that they were going 70
say much 10 me?"
You told me-" said George. fiercely,
that mother never saw him except
when she was chaperoning you"
They weren't much alone together.
then" Fanny returned. Hardly ever,
before Wilbur died. Everybody knew
that he'd been engaged TO her"
whats that?" George cried.
Everybody knows il. Don't you re-
member your grandfather speaking of
it at the Sunday dinner one night?"
He didn't say they were engaged
Or"
well, they were Everybody knows
/. 1t: and she broke 1t off on account Of
that serenade when Eugene didn't
know what he was doing He drank
( when he was g young man, and she
wouldn't stand for it, but everybody
in this town knows that Isabel has
never really cared for any other man
In her life! Poor Wilburl He was
the only soul alive that didn't know
It'll"
Nightmare had descended upon the
unfortunate George; he leaned back
against the footboard of his bed, gaz-
ing wildly at his aunt. Il believe I'm
going crazy" he said. you mean
when you told me there wasn't any
talk, you told me a falsehoodT
"Now Fanny gasped.
tfYorr dfJ
II tell you I didn't know how much
talk there was, and 1t wouldn't have
amounted to much II Wilbur had
lived" And Fanny completed this
with fatal admission: II didn't want
you to interfere"
George overlooked the admission;
his mind was not row occupied with
analysis. "What do snu mean," he
asked, "when you say that If father
had lived, tn talk wouldn't have
amounted to anything"
Things might have been-they
might have been different"
you mean Morgan might have mar
ried you?"
Fanny gulped. mo. Because
don't know that I'd have accepted
him." She had ceased to weep, and
now she sat up stiffiy. 81 certainly
didn't care enough about him to mar
ry him; / wouldn't have let myself
care that much until he showed that
he wished to marry me. I'm not that
sort of person" The poor lady paid
her vanity this piteous little tribute.
"What / mean is, If Wilbur hadn't died
people wouldn't have had 1t proved
before their very eyes that what
they'd been talking about was truew
"You say-you say that people be-
lieve-" George shuddered, then
forced himself to continue, in q sick |
voice: "They believe my mother is
Is In love with that man"
"Of course"
"And because he comes here-and /
they see her with him driving-and all !
that--they think they were right when /
they said she was in-in love with him
before-before my father diedY
She looked at him gravely with her
eyes now dry between their reddened
lids. "Why, George" she said, gently, /
don't you know that's what they say?
You must know that everybody In
town thinks they're going to be mar
rled very soon."
George uttered an incOherent cry;
and sections of him appeared to
writhe. He was upon the verge Of
actual nausea.
"You know it !" Fanny cried, getting
up. "YOu don't think I'd have spoken
of 1t to you unless / was sure you
knew it?" Her voice was wholly
genuine, as 1t had been throughout the
wretched interview. Somebody must
have told your
"Who told your" he said.
"What?"
"Who told you there was talk?
Where is this talk? Where does it
come from? Who does it?"
"Why, suppose pretty much every
body" she said. II know 1t must be
pretty general"
"Who said so?"
"WhatT
George stepped close to her. "You
say people don't speak to a person Of