Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1919-12-12

avenue met ANDERSON boulevard here
az an obtuse angle, and the removal Of
the pillars made the boulevard seem q
cross street of no overpowering inn
portance- certainly it did not seem to
be boulevard
George walked by the Mansion hur-
riedly, and came home to hts mothers
house for the last time.
Emptiness was there, too. and the
closing of the door resounded through
bare rooms; for downstairs there was
no furniture in the house except a
kitchen table I'm the dining room. which
Fanny had kept ''for dinner she said,
though as she was to cook and serve
that meal herself George had his
/ doubts about her name for It. Upstairs,
she had retained her own furniture.
and George had been living In his
mothers room. having sent everything
/ from his own to the auction. Isabel's
room was still as 1t had been. but the
furniture would be moved with
Fanny's to new quarters in the morn
/ ing Fanny had made plans for her
nephew as well as herself; she had
4 found a ''three-room kltchenette apart
/ ment" In an apartment house where
several old friends of hers had estab-
bshed hemselves-elderly widows Of
I citizens once prominent" and other
retired gentry, People used their own
'kitchenettes" for breakfast and lunch,
but there was a table-d'hote arrange
ment for dinner on the ground floor:
and after dinner bridge was played
oil evening, ar attraction powerful
with Funny. She had made all the
arrangements" she reported, and ner-
vously appealed for approval, asking IL
/ she hadn't shown herself pretty prac-
| teal" in such matters. George acqui-
esced absent-mindedly, not thinking OF
what she said and not realizing to
what 1t committed him.
He began to realize It now, as he
wondered about the dismantled housei
he was far from sure that he wig
willing to live in ''three-room apart
ment' with Fanny and eat breakfast
and lunch with her tprepared by her
self In the "kitchenette") and dinner
Mt the table d'hote N "such pretty
=
scribed IT'D at little round table they
would have all to themselves In the
midst of a dozen little round tables
which other relics of disrupted fam
lilies would have all to themselves. For
the first time, now that the change
was imminent, George began TO devel-
op before his minds eye pictures OF
What he was in for; and they appalled,
Kim. He decided that such a life
vc~ged upon the sheerly unbearable.
and that after all there were sons
things left that he just couldn't stand.
So he made up his mind TO speak to
his aunt about 1t ut dinner" and tell
her that he preferred to ask Bronson
to let him put a sofa-bed, trunk and
a folding rubber bathtub behind a
screen In the dark rear room of the Of
fice.
But at dinner" Fanny was nerv-
Gus. and SO distressed about the fall
ure of her efforts with sweetbreads
and maearoni; and she was so eager
In her talk of how comfortable they
would be ''by this time tomorrow
night
| After "dlnner" he went upstairs.
moving his hand slowly along the
, smooth walnut railing Of the balus-
trade. Half way TO the landing he
stopped turned, and stood looking
down at the heavy doors masking tho
black emptiness that had been the
library. Here he had stood on what
he now knew was the worst day of his
HE; here he had stood when his moth
er passed through that doorway, hand.
in-hand with her brother. to learn what
her son had done.
He went on more heavily, more slow.
ly; and, more heavily and slowly still.
entered Isabel's room and shut the
door. He did not come forth again.
aud babe Fanny goodnight through
the closed door when she stopped out
side it later.
1--WE put all the lights out, George"
! she said. 'Everything's all right"
"v.ry WELL" he called. "Good night.
| Aunt Fanny"
His voice had strangled sound In
spite of him; but she seemed not to
notice Il, and he heard her go to her
own room and lock herself In with
bolt and key against burglars. She
had said the one thing she should not
have said just then: sim sure your
mothers watching over you, George"
She had meant to be kind, but II de-
stroyed his last chance for sleep that
night. lie would have slept little IL
she had not said It. but since she had
said 1t he did not sleep ct all. For he
knew that 1t was true-if 1t could be-
true--that his mother, II she still lived
in spirit, would be weeping on the
other side of the wall of silence, weep
ing and seeking for some gate to let
her through so that she could come
and swatch over him."
He felt that IL there we're such gates
they were surely barred: they were
like those awful library doors down