River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1920-01-22
Continued IRON page 1.

so sure was wrong!
Nothing George"
Its only because you're afraid to"
he said and he went on with sudden
bitter divinatiOn: You're reproach-
ing yourself with what you had to do
with all that; and you're trying TO
make up for it by doing and saying
what you think mother would want
you to, and you think l couldn't stand
it if l got to thinking I might have
done differently. Oh, | know That's
exactly what's in your mind: you do
think I was wrong! So does Uncle
George. / challenged him about it
the other day, and he answered just
as you're nswering-evaded, and
tried to be gentle! l don't care to be
handled with gloves! / tell you l was
right, and l don't need any coddling
by people that think I wasn't! And
l suppose you believe I was wrong not
to let Morgan see her that last night
when he came here, and she-she was
dying. If you do, why in the name OF
God did you come and ask me? You
could have taken him in! She did
want to see him. She"
Miss Fanny looked startled. "You
think"
"She told me sol" And the tortured
young man choked. "She said-'just
once She said I'd like to have seen
him-just oncer She meant-to tell
him goodbye, That's what she
meant. And you put this on me, too !;
you put this responsibility on me!
But I tell you, and | told Uncle
George, that the responsibility isn't
all mine, IF you were so sure was
wrong all the time-when / took her
away, and when I turned Morgan out
if you were so sure, what did you
let me do it for? You and Uncle
George were grown people, both of
you. weren't you? You were older
than I, and if you were so sure you
were wiser than I, why did you just
stand around with your hands hanging
down, and let me go ahead? You
could have stopped it if it was wrong,
couldn't you?"
Fanny shook her head. 'No George"
she said slowly. Nobody could have
stopped you. You were too strong,
and"
"And what?" he demanded loudly.
"And she loved you-too WELL"
George stared at her hard, then his
lower lip began to move convulsively,
and he set his teeth upon it but could
not check it's frantic twitching.
He ran out of the room.
She sat still, listening. He had
plunged into his mothers room, but no
sound came to Fanny's ears after the
sharp closing of the door; and pres
emily she rose and stepped out into
the hall-but could hear nothing.
What interview was sealed away from
human eye and ear within the lonely
darkness on the other side of that
door-in that darkness where Isabels
own special chairs were. and her own
special books, and the two great wal
nut wardrobes filled with her dresses
md wraps? What tragic argument
might be there vainly striving to con.
flute the gentle dead? "In Gods name,
what else could I have done?" For
his mothers immutable silence was
surely answering him as Isabel in life
would never have answered him, and
he was beginning to understand how
eloquent the dead can be. They can
not stop their eloquence, no matter
how they have loved the living; they
cannot choose. And so, no matter in
what agony George should cry out,
"What else could | have dOne?" and
to the end of his life no matter how
often he made that wild appeal, Isabel
was doomed to answer him with the
wistful, faint murmur.
"rd like to have-seen him. Just
once"
A superstitious person
might have thought it unfortunate that
Fanny's partner in speculative indus.
try as in Wilbur'S disastrous rolling
mills. was that charming but too hap
hazardous man of the world, George
Anderson. He was one of those OPP
timistS who believe that if you put
money into a great many enterprises
one of them is sure to turn out for
tune. and therefore, in order TO find
the lucky one, it is only necessary to
go into a large enough number of them.
"YOu ought to have thought of my
record and stayed out" he told Fanny,
one day the next spring, when the af-
fairs of the headlight company had
begun to look discOuraging. Things
do look bleak, and I'm only glad you
didn't 90 into this confOunded thing
to the extent I did,
Miss Fanny grew pink. 'But it must
GO right Z" she protested. eve saw
with our own eyes how perfectly il
worked out in the shop. 1t simply"
"Oh. you're right about that" AM
berSon said. sit certainly was a per.