River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1920-01-22
ANDERSON made no answer.


err for half an hour, when both men
started violently at sound in tho
hall; and the Major sat up on the bed.
1t 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: "Does she
want us--to come in?"
But Fanny found her voice, and ut
tered long, loud cry. She threw her
arms about George, and sobbed in an
agony of loss and compassion:
.She loved you - she walled. "Sho
loved you'll She loved you! Oh, how
she did love your
Isabel had just left them.
- y y "
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 question. He seemed almost
unaware of what went on around him,
and those who were with him thought
him dazed by Isabels death, guessing
! that he was lost in "reminiscences anc
vague dreams. "Probably his mind is
c..1l oc hi hl
| 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 to plan
| how TO enter the unknown country
/ where he was not even sure of being
recognized as an Amberson-not sure
of anything, except that Isabel would
| help him if she could. The Major was
occupied with the first really impor-
tant matter that had taken his atten-
ton since he came home invalided, aft
! ter the Gettysburg campaign, and
went into business, and he realized
that everything which had worried
! him or delighted him during this life
| time between then and today-all his
buying and building and trading and
! banking-that it all was trifiing and
waste beside what concerned him now.
Meanwhile, the life of the little be-
reft group still forlornly centering up
on him began to pick up again, as life
will, and to emerge from its own peri
4 cd of daZedness. 1t was not IsabePs
father but her son who was really
dazed.
month after her death he walked
abruptly into Fanny's room, one night,
and found her at her desk, eagerly
adding columns of figures with which
1 she had covered several sheets of pa
per.
GEORGE You startled me-"
81 beg your pardon for not knock
ing" he said huskily. II didn't think"
She turned in her chair and looked
at him solicitously. "Sit down, George,
won't your
mo. / just wanted
ST could hear you walking up and
down in your ROOM" said Fanny. You
were doing it ever since dinner, and
it seems TO me you're at it almost
every evening. I don't believe it's good
! for yo,l-and / know it would worry
your mother terribly if She" Fam
ny hesitated.
"See here" George said, breathing
fast. II want to tell you once more that
what did was right. How could |
have done anything else but what |
did do?"
"Oh, I don't pretend to judge" Fan
nv said soothingly, for his voice and
gesture both partook Of wildness. i
know you think you did, George
"Think | did," he echoed violent
". my God in heavenr' And he
began to walk up and down the fioor.
"What else was there to DO? What
choice did / have? Was there any
other way of stopping the talk!" He
stopped, close in front of her, gestic-
ulating, his voice harsh and loud
"Was there any other way on earth
of protecting her from the talk!"
Miss Fanny looked away. sit died
down before long, / think" she said
nervously.
"That shows / was right doesn't it 2
he cried. IF l hadn't acted as | did
that slanderous old Johnson woman
would have kept on with her ISLANDERS
she'd still be"
"No," Fanny interrupted. "She's
dead. She dropped dead with apoplexy
one day about six weeks after you
left. / didn't mention it in my let
tiers because | didn't want