River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1920-02-05
Continued from paga

TIE elevator boy noticed nothing I'M
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, |
lcn2ed for it, hoping acutely that they
might live to seattle 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
vestige; and it mattered little that
George guessed easily enough that
most of the five hundred Most Promi-
nent had paid something substantial
''to 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 nest of
cracks"
George Minafer had got his come
apance, but the people who had so
longed for it were not there to see it,
and they never knew it. Those who
were still living had forgotten all
about it and all about him.
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 yet each kept his eyes
straight forward, and neither had
shown perceptible alteration of coun.
tenance. 1t seemed to George that he
felt ernanating from the outwardly I'M
perturbable person of his mothers ole
friend hate that was like 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 1t. banny
had not told him, for she understood
George well enough not to speak TO
him of Eugene or Lucy. Nowadays
Fanny almost never saw either or
them and seldom thought of them-so
sly is the way of time with life. She
was passing middle age, when old In
tensities and longingS grow thin and
flatten 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, and
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 year, and not know it.
One May day George thought he had
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 took
him out of town for a week, or longer,
and it was upon his return from one OF
these absences that he had the strange
experience. He had walked home from
the station, and as he turned the corr
ner which brought him in sight of the
apartment house entrance, though two
blocks distant from it, he saw charm
ing little figure come out, get into a
shiny landaulet automobile, and drive
away. Even at that distance no one
could have any doubt that the little
figure was charming; and the height,
the quickness and decision of motion,
even the swift gesture of white glove
toward the chauffeur-all were char
acteristic of Lucy. George was instant
ly subjected to shock of indefinable
nature, yet definitely a shock: he did
not know what he felt-but he knew
that he felt. He went on slowly, his
knees shaky.
But he found Fanny not at home;
she had been out all afternoon; and
there was no record of any caller
and he began to wonder, then to doubt
if the small lady he had seen in the
distance was Lucy 1t might as wen
have been, he said to himself-since
anyone who looked like her could give
him "a jolt like that!'
Lucy had not left card. She never
left one when she called on Fanny;
though she did not give her reasons a
quite definite form in her own mind.
She came seldom; this was but the
third time that year, and, when she did
come, George was not mentioned,
either by her hostess or by herself-an
oddly contriyed between the two
ladies without either of them realizing
how odd il WAS.