Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1919-12-23

substantial quantity of stock on the
condition that the chemical company
should establish an experimental labo-
ratory. He intended to buy more
Akers was anxious to please him; and
word from Eugene would have
placed George almost anywhere In the
chemical works. The possibility just
edged itself into Eugene's mind; that
Is, ne let 1t become part of his percep-
lions long enough for it to prove to
him that 1t was actually possibility.
Then he half started with disgust that
he should be even idly considering
such thing over his last cigar for the
night. in his library. 'Nol" And he
threw the cigar into the empty fire.
place and went to bed.
His bitterness for himself might
have worn away, but never his bitter
ness for Isabel. He took that thought
to bed with him-and it was true that
nothing George could do would ever
change this bitterness of Eugene. Only
Georges mother could have changed it.
And as Eugene fell asleep that
night, thinking thus bitterly of
George, George In the hospital was
thinking Of Eugene. He thought of Eu-
gene Morgan and of the Major; they
seemed to be the same person for
awhile, but he manged to disentangle
them and even to understand why he
had confused them. Long ago his
grandfather had been the most strik-
ing figure Of success In the town: "As
rich as Major Anderson ~ they used to
say. Now it was Eugene. "If / had
Eugene Morgan's money" he would
hear the workmen day-dreaming at the
chemical works; or, eff Eugene Nor
gan had hold of this place you'd see
things hum % And the boarders at the
table d'hote spoke of 'the Morgan
Place" as an eighteenth-cen
Frenchman spoke of Versailles. Like
his uncle, George had perceived that
the Morgan Place" was the new Am
berson mansion. His reverie went back
to the palatial days Of the mansion, in
his boyhood, when he would gallop his
pony up the driveway and order the
darkey stablemen about, while they
Their, observing from window, would
laugh and call out to him: "That's
right, George. Make those lazy ras-
Gals jump" He remembered his gay
young uncles, and now the town was
eager concerning everything about
them, and about himself. What a clean,
pretty town it had been! And In his
reverie he saw like a pageant before
him the magnificence of the Amber
sons-its passing, and the passing of
the AmbersOns themselves. They had
been slowly engulfed without knowing
how to prevent it, and almost without
knowing what was happening to them.
The family lot, in the shabby old quar-
ter, out at the cemetery, held most of
them now; and the name was swept
altogether from the new city. The
Ambersons had passed, and the new
people would pass, and the new people
that came after them, and the next
new ones, and the next-and the
next
He had begun to murmur, and the
man on duty as night nurse for the
ward came and bent over him.
did you want something's"
There's nothing in this family bust
ness" George told him confidentially.
"Even George Washington is only
something in book
A
Eugene read report of the accident
in the next mornings paper. He was
on the train, having just left for New
York, on business, and with less leis-
ure would probably have overlooked
the obscure item:
LEGS BROKEN.
G. A. Minafer, an employee of the Ak
ers Chemical company was run down by
an automobile yesterday at the corner of
Tennessee and Main and had both legs
broken. Minafer was to blame for the
accident, according to Patrolman +. A
Kax, who witnessed the affair The auto
mobile was a small one driven by Herbert
Cottleman of 2173 Noble avenue, who stat
ed that he was making less than four
miles an hour. Minafer is said to belong
to family formerly of considerable prom
inence in the, city. He was taken to the
City hospital. where physicians stated
later that he was suffering from internal
injuries besides the fracture of his legs
but might recover.
Eugene read the item twice, then
tossed the paper upon the opposite seat
of his compartment, and sat looking
out of the window. His feeling toward
George was changed not jot by his
human pity for Georges human pain
and injury. He thought of Georges
tall and graceful figure, and he shiv-
cred, but his bitterness was untouched
He had never blamed Isabel for the
weakness which had cost them the few
years of happiness they might have
had together; he had put the blame
all on the son. and it stayed there.
He began to think poignantly of Isa-
bel. He closed his eyes and saw her
as she had been long ago. He saw the
brown-eyed, brown-haired, proud. gen.
tie. laughing girl he had known when
first he came to town. a boy just out
of the State college. He remembered
las he had remembered ten thousand
times before-the look she gave him
when her brother George introduced
him to her at a picnic; it was like
hazel starlight" he had written her. in
a poem. afterward. He remembered
his first call at the Anderson mansion.
and what a great parsonage she
seemed, at home in that rnagnificence
and yet so gay and friendly. He re-
membered the first time he had danced
with her-and the old waltz song be
gan to beat in his ears and in his
heart.
All the way to New York 1t seemed
to him that Isabel was near him. and
he wrote of her to Lucy from his hotel
the next night:
II saw an account of the accident
of George Minafer. I'm sorry, though
the paper states that it was plainly
his own fault. / suppose it may have
been as q result of my attention fail