Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1919-11-20

glanced at 1t a~bsently, merely noticing
the title and subtitle, and wandered
out of the room, thinking of other
things and feeling no curiosity about
the book. But he had thought of it
several times since with a faint, vague
uneasiness; and nov when he entered
the lobby he walked directly into the
parlor where he had seer the book.
The room was empty, as it always was
on Sunday mornings, and the famboy-
ant volume was still upon the table
evidently a fixture as a sort of local
Almanach de Gotha, or Burke, for the
enlightenment of tenants and boarders.
He turned to the index where the
names of the five hundred Most Promi-
nent Citizens and Families in the His
tory of the City were arranged in al
phabetical order, and ran his finger
down the column of AS: Albeit, Alb
bolt, Abrams, Adams, Adams, Adler,
Akers, Albertsmeyer, Alexander, Allen,
Ambrose, Ambuhl, Anderson, Andrews,
Appenbasch, Archer, Arszman, Ash
craft, Austin, Alvey.
Georges eyes remained for some
time fixed on the thin space between
the names "Allen" and Ambrose"
Then he closed the book quietly, and
went up to his own room, agreeing
with the elevator boy, on the way,
that it vas getting to be a mighty
nasty wet and windy day outside.
The elevator boy noticed nothing un-
usual about him and neither did Fanny,
when she came in from church with
her hat ruined, an hour later. And yet
something had happened-a thing
which, years ago, had been the eager
est hope of many, many good citizens
of the town. They had thought of it,
longed for it, hoping acutely that they
might live to see the day when it would
come to pass. And now it had hap
pened at last: George Minafer had
got his come-upance.
He had got it three times filled and
running over. The city had rolled over
his heart, burying it under, as it rolled
over the Majors and buried it under.
The city had rolled over the Amber
sons and buried them under to the last
yestige; and it mattered little that
George guessed easily enough that
most Of the five hundred Most Promi-
nent had paid something substantial
ito defray the cost of steel engraving,
etc."-the Five Hundred had heaved
the final shovelful of SCOT upon that
heap of obscurity wherein the Amber
sons were lost forever from sight and
history. Quicksilver in a nest of
cracks!"
George Minafer had got his come
upance, but the people who had so
longed for it were not there to see 1t,
and they never knew it. Those who
were still living had forgotten all
about it and all about him.
= y = = . =
George had seen Eugene only once
since their calamitous encounter. They
had passed on opposite sides of the
street, downtown; each had been
aware that the other was aware of
him, and vet each kept his eyes
straight forward, and neither had
shown a ~perceptible alteration of coun.
tenance. 1t seemed to George that he
felt emanating from the outwardly i'm
perturbable person of his mothers old
friend q hate that was like a hot wind.
At his mothers funeral and at the
| Majors he had been conscious that
Eugene was there: though he had aft.
erward no recollection of seeing him,
and, while certain of his presence, was
uncertain how he knew of it. Fanny
had not told him, for she understood
George well enough not to speak to
him of Eugene or Lucy. Nowadays
Fanny almost eve saw either OF
them and seldom thought Of them-sC
sly is the way of time with life. She
was passing middle age, when old in
tensities and longings grow thin and
fiattep out, as Fanny herself was thin
ming and fiattening out; and she was
settling down contentedly to her apart
ment-house intimacies.
The city was so big, now, that peo'
pie disappeared into it unnoticed, anC
the disappearance of Fanny and her
nephew was not exceptional. People
no longer knew their %neighbors as {
matter of course; one lived for years
next door to strangers-that sharpest
of all the changes since the old days
and a friend would lose sight Of {
friend for a year, and not know it.
One May day George thought he hat
a glimpse of Lucy. He was not Ger
tain, but he was sufficiently disturbed
In spite of his uncertainty. A promo
ton in his work now frequently tool
him out of town for a week, or longer
and it was upon his return from n O.
these absences that he had the Strang,
experience. He had walked home iron
the station, and as he turned the cor
ner which brought him in sight Of TIN
apartment house entrance, though tw'
blocks distant from it, he saw a charm
ing little figure come out, get into
shiny landaulet automobile, and driv'
away. Even at that distance no on
could have any doubt that the littl'
figure was charming; and the height
the quickness and decision Of motion
even the swift gesture Of q white glOv,