The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1919-09-11

were an abyss. Five years hence he
would be almost ~twenty-four; what
the girls he knew called zone of the
older men," He could imagine himself
at tw%enty-four, but beyond that his
powers staggered and refused the
task. He saw little essential differ
ence between thirty-eight and eighty
eight, and his mother was to him not
a woman but wholly a mother. The
woman, Isabel, was a stranger to her
son; as completely a stranger as If
nc had never in his life seen her Or
heard her voice. And 1t was tonight,
while he stood with her, receiving"
that he caught a disquieting glimpse
of this stranger whom he thus fleet
ingly encountered for the first time.
Youth cannot imagine romanc
apart from youth. That is why the
roles OF the heroes and heroines of
plays are given by the managers to
the most youthful actors they can find
among the competent. Both middle
aged people and young people enjoy q
play about young lovers; but only
middle-aged people will tolerate q play
about middle-aged lovers; young
people will not come to see such a
play, because for, them middle-aged
lovers are a joke-not a very funny
one. Therefore, to bring both the
middle-aged people and the young
people into his house the manager
makes his omanc as young as he
n Youth will indeed be served, and
its profound instinct is to be not only
scOrnfully amused but vaguely an
gered by middle-aged romance. So.
standing beside his mother. George
was disturbed by a sudden impression,
coming upon him out Of nowhere, so
far as he could detect, that her eyes
were brilliant, that she was graceful
and youthful-in a word that she was
Economically lovely.
He had one Of those curious moments
that seem to have neither a cause nor
any connection with actual things.
There was nothing in either her looks
or her manner to explain Georges I'M
comfortable feeling; and yet it in.
creased, becoming suddenly a vague
resentment, as If she had done some
thing unmotherly to him.
The fantastic moment passed; and
even while it lasted he was doing his
duty, greeting two pretty girls with
whom he had grown up, as people say,
and warmly assuring them that he re-
membered them very well-an assur-
ance which might have surprised them
'fn anybody but George Minafer!"
1t seemed unnecessary, since he had
spent many hours with them no longer
than the preceding August. They had
with them their parents and an uncle
from out Of town; and George negli-
gently gave the parents the same as
surance he had given the daughters,
but murmured another form Of greet
ing to the ,Out-of-town uncle, whom
he had never seen before. This per-
son George absently took note Of as
a "queer-looking duck" U~ndergradu-
ates had not yet adopted bird" It
was a period previous to that in which
a sophomore would have thought of
the Sharon girls uncle as a queer
looking bird" or, perhaps, a funny.
face bird" In Georges time every hui
man male was to be defined at pleas
ure as a duck" but "duck" was not
spoken with admiring affection. as in
its former feminine use to signify a
"dear"-on the contrary, duck" i'm
piled the speakers personal detach-
ment and humorous superiority. An
Indifferent amusement was what
George felt when his mother, with
a gentle emphasis, interrupted his in
terchange Of courtesies with the
nieces to present him to the queer
looking duck, their uncle. This en-
phasis of Isabel's. though slight, en-
abled George to perceive that she con-
sidered the queer-looking duck a per-
son Of some importance; but 1t was
far from enabling him to understand
why. The duck parted his thick and
lOngish black hair on the side; his
tie was a fO~rgetful-looking thing, and
his coat, though 1t fitted a good
enough middle-aged figure, no product
Of this year, or Of last year either.
Observing only his questionable hair,
his ~preoccupied tie and his old coat,
the Olympic George set him down as
a queer-looking duck, and having thus
completed his portrait took no inter-
est in him.
The Sharon girls passed on, taking
the Queer-looking duck with them, and
George became pink with mortifica-
ton as his mother called his attention
to a white-bearded guest waiting to
shake his hand. This was Georges
great-uncle, old John Minafer: 1t was
old Johns boast that in spite of his
connection by marriage with the Am
persons he never had worn and never
would wear a swaller-tail coat. Mem
bers of his family had exerted their
influence uselessly - at eighty-nine
conservative people seldom form rad
ical new habits, and old John wore his
Sunday suit" Of black b%roadcloth to
the Anderson ball. The coat was
square, with skirts to the knees; old
John called 1t a "Prince Albert" and
was well enough pleased with It, but
hts o~roat-uenhpw considered II the