Cleveland County herald., 1919-12-25
"All you needed9''

then, Are you sure you dldnsG---dldn't catch cold-coming homef"
 ''I'm all right, mother"
 ''That's good. It's sweet-it's. sweet"
 "What is, mother darling?"
 ''To feel-nly hand on your cheek. I-I can feel it."
 But this frightened him horribly that she seemed so glad she could feel it. like a child proud of some miracu- lous seeming thing accomplished. It frightened him so that he could uot speak, and he feared that she would know how he trembled; but she was. unaware, and again was silent. Finai- ly she spoke again:
 q wonder if-if Eugene and Ilucp. know that we've come-home.''
 ''I'm sure they do.'
 "Has he-asked about mel"
 t'Yes, he was here."
 Has he-gone?"
 "Yes, mother"
 She sighed faintly. "Pd like--''
 ''What, mother?'
 "I'd like to have-seen him." It was audible, this little regretful murmur. Several minutes passed before there was another. "Just-just once," she whispered. and then was still.
 She seemed to have fallen asleep, and George moved to go, but faint pressure upon his fingers detained him, and he remained, with her hand still pressed against his cheek. After [
 J,A dO ch a aciaAn Q and moved again, to let the nurse come in, and this time there was no. pressure of the fingers to keep him. She was not asleep, but, thinking that if he went he might get some rest, and be better prepared for what she knew was coming, she commanded these longing fingers of hers-and let him go.
 He found the doctor standing with the nurse in the hall; and, telling them that his mother was drowsing now, George went back to his own room, where he was startled to find his grandfather lying on the bed, and his uncle leaning against the wall. They had gone home two hours before, and he did not know they had return ed.
 "The doctor thought we'd better come over," Anderson said, then was silent, and George, shaking violently, sat down on the edge of the bed. His shaking continued, and from time to time he wiped heavy sweat from hiz forehead.
 The hours passed, and sometimes the old man upon the bed would snore a little, stop suddenly, and move as if to rise, but George Anderson would set a hand upon his shoulder, and murmur a reassuring word or two.
 Once George gasped defantly: "That doctor in New York said she might get better! Don't you know h. did? Don't you know he said shS might?"
 Anderson made no answer.
 Dawn had been murking througH3- the smoky windows, growing strong CT for half an hour, when both men started violently at sound in the hall; and the Major sat up on the bed. It was the voice Of the nurse speaking to Fanny Minafer, and the next mo- ment Fanny appeared in the doorway making contorted efforts to speak
 Anderson said weakly: Docs she want us-to come in?"
 But Fanny found her voice. and ut- tered a long, loud cry. She threw her arms about George, and sobbed in all agony of loss and compassion:
 "She loved you" she walled. 'She loved you! She loved you! Oh, how she did love youl'
 Isabel had just left them. * <
 Major Anderson remained dry-eyed through the time that followed; he knew that this separation from his daughter would be short; that the separation which had preceded it was the long one. He worked at his ledgers no more under his old gas drop-light, but would sit all evening staring into the fire, in his bedroom, and not speaking unless someone ask, ed him a question. He seemed almost unaware of what went on around him, and those who were with him thought him dazed by Isabels death, guessing lAat he was lost in "reminiscences and vague dreams. "Probably his mind is. full of pictures of his youth, or the. Civil war, and the days when he and, mother were young married people and all of us children were jolly little thingS--and the city was small town with one cobbled street and the others just dirt roads with board sidewalks" This was George Amberson's conjec-. ture, and the others agreed; but they were mistaken. The Major was en- gagged in the profoundest thinking of his life. No business plans which had. ever absorbed him could compare in momentousness with the plans that absorbed him now for he had tn nlan