Cleveland County herald., 1919-11-13

UT TdlHer, W1ln HIS ldCk OL eLlotioH, and the anxious sympathy of his grand l father and his uncle made him feel | hypocritical. He was not grief-stricR- en- but he felt that he ought to be, | and, with a secret shame, concealed 1 his callousness beneath an affectation of solemnity.
 But when he was taken into the room where lay what was left of Will | bur Minafer, George had no longer to pretend his grief was sufficient. 1t needed only the sight of that forever l inert semblance of the quiet man who had been always so quiet part Of ms sons life-so quiet part that George had seldom been consciously aware that his father was indeed part of his life. As the figure lay there, its very quietness was what was most life like; and suddenly it struck George hard. And in that unexpected, racking grief of his son, Wilbur Minafer be- came more wildly Georges father than he had ever been in life. When George left the room, his arm was about his black-robed mother, his shoulders were still shaken with sobs He leaned upon his mother; she gently comforted him; and presently he re- covered his composure and became self-conscious enough to wonder if he had not been making an unmanly dis play of himself. "I'm all right again, mother" he said awkwardly. Don't worry about me: you'd better go lie down, or something; you look pretty pale"
 Isabel did look pretty pale, but not ghastly pale, as Fanny did. Fanny's grief was overwhelming she stayed in her room, and George did not see her until the next day, a few minutes be- fore the funeral, when her haggard face appalled, him.
 The annoyance gave way before a recollection of the sweet mournfulness of his mothers face, as she had said good-by to him at the station, and of how lovely she looked in her mourning. He thought of Lucy, whom he had seen only twice, and he could not help feel ing that in these quiet interviews he had appeared to her as tinged with heroism-She had shown, rather than said, how brave she thought him. When he went back to college, what came most vividly to Georges mind, during retrospections, was the despair ing face of his Aunt Fanny. Again and again he thought of it; he could not avoid it's haunting. Her grief had been so silent, yet it had so amazed him.
 George felt more and more compass sion for this ancient antagonist of his, and he wrote to his mother about her:
 ''Pm afraid poor Aunt Fanny might think now fathers gone we won't want her to live with us any longer and be- cause I always leased her so much she might think I'd be for turning her out I don't know where on earth she'd go or what she could live on if we did do something like this, and of course we never would do such a thing, but I'm pretty sure she had something of the kind on her mind. She didn't say any thing. but the way she looked is what makes me think so. Honestly, to ne she looked just scared sick You teii her there isn't any danger in the world of my treating her like that. Tell her everything is to go on just as it al- ways has. Tell her to cheer up!''
 Isabel did more for Fanny than tell ing her to cheer up. Everything that Fanny inherited from her father, old Aleck Minafer, had been invested in Wilbur's business; and Wilbur's busi- ness, after a period of illness corre spending in dates to the illness of Will burs body, had died just before Will bur did. George Anderson and Fanny were both wiped out to miracle of precision" as Anderson said. They "owned not a penny and owed not a penny" he continued, explaining his phrase. Its like the moment just be- fore drowning: you're not under water and you're not out of it. All you know is that you're not dead yet"
 He spoke philosophically, having his prospects" from his father to fall back upon; but Fanny had neither prospects" nor philosophy. However, a legal survey of Wilbur's estate re- vealed the fact that his life insurance was left clear of the wreck; and Isa- bel, with the cheerful consent of her son, promptly turned this salvage over to her sister-in-law. Invested, it would yield something better than nine hun dred dollars a year, and thus she Was assured of becoming neither a pauper nor a dependent, but proved to be, as Anderson said, adding his efforts to the cheering up of Fanny, "an heiress, after all, in spite of rolling mills and the devil"
 The collegian did not return to his home for the holidays. Instead Isa- bel joined him, and they went South for the two weeks. She was proud of her stalwart, good-looking son at the hotel where they stayed, and it was meat and drink to her when she saw how people stared at him in the lobby and on the big verandas-indeed her vanity in him was so dominant that