The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1920-01-08

and the rest, whoever they were, are
! probably so mixed in with the crowds
| Of new people that seem never even to
have heard of us-and I'm sure we
! certainly never heard of them-and
! people seem to forget things so soon
! they seem to forget anything. You
can't imagine how things have changed
! here!"
George gulped painfully before he
! could speak. "You-yOu mean to sit
there and tell me that if I'd just let
/ things go on OH He swung away,
walking the floor again. II tell you
did the only right thing! You think
l was wrong"
I'm not saying So" she said.
"You did at the time" he cried.
"You said enough then, | think. Well,
what have you to say now, If you're
so sure | was wrongs"
Nothing, George
ITS only because you're afraid to!"
he said. and he went on with a 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 | couldn't stand
it if | got to thinking | might have
done differently. Oh, | know That's
exactly what's in your mind: you do
think | was wrong! SO does Uncle
George. | challenged him about it
the other day, and he answered just
as you're anSwering-evaded, and
tried to be gentle! l don't care to be
handled with gloves! | tell you | was
right. and / don't need any cOddling
by people that think | wasn't! And
! suppose you believe | 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 or
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 sou And the tortured
young man chOked. "She said-'just
once She said I'd like to have seen
hm-iuSt 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 l tell you, and I told Uncle
George, that the responsibility isn't
all mine! If you were so sure I was
wrong all the time-when | took her
! away, and when | turned Morgan out
| If you were so sure, what did you
! let me do it for? You and Uncle
t George were grown people, both of
! YOU, weren't you? You were older
y than l. and if you We're so sure you
, were wiser than /, why did you just
3 stand around with your hands hanging
1 down, and let me &C ahead? YOr
3 could have stopped it if it was wrong
: couldn't you?"
: Fanny shook her head. "No, George,
!. she said slowly. Nobody could have
1 stopped you. You were too strong
d and"
d "And what?" he demanded loudly.
: "And she loved you-too WELL"
d lower lip began to move convulsively
d and he set his teeth upon it hut coult
:. not check its frantic twitching.
!. He ran out of the room.
j. She sat still, listening. He hat
e plunged into his mothers room, but n
l. sound came to Fanny's ears after tn
8 sharp closing of the door; and pres
y emily she rose and stepped out int
the hall-but could hear nothing
d What interview was sealed away frOI
t, human eye and ear within the lionel
y darkness on the other side Of tha
h doOr-in that darkness where Isabel
l. own special chairs were, and her Ow
special books, and the two great wa
nut wardrObes filed with her dresse
& and wraps? What tragic argumer
)" might be there vainly striving to CO
q fute the gentle dead? ''In. Gods nam
e, what else could / have done?" F.
his mothers immutable silence WI
surely answering him as Isabel in Ii
"a would never have answered him, al
u he was beginning to understand no
Va elOQuent the uedu can De. lney ca
st not stop their elOquence, no matt
VI how they have loved the living; th
y cannot choose. And so, no matter
n what agony George should cry o,
S. "What else could l have done" al
lg to the end of his life no matter he
1T often he made that wild appeal, Isat
l was doomed to answer him with t
l wistful, faint murmur.
"Td like to have-seen him. -Ju
j. once"
" A superStitiOus perS
might have thought it unfortunate tn
Fanny's partner in speculative ind,
{ try as in Wilbur's disastrous rOllin
le mills, was that charming but too ha
T. hazardous man of the world, Geor
IL Anderson. He was one Of those {
~ timists who believe that If you p
lie money into great many enterpris
C. one Of them is sure to turn out a fl
!: tune, and therefore, in order to al
IN the lucky one, 1t is only necessary
go into large enough number Of the
20 "YOu ought to have thought Of I
10 record and stayed out" he told Fanr
one day the next spring, when the ,
II" fairs of the headlight company h
IN kepun tO look diScOura ayipy Thin