The Ordway new era., 1920-01-02

rubric. Biographies of the 500 Most
Prominent Citizens and Families in
the History of the City, He had
glanced at 1t absently. merely noticing
the title and subtitle. and wandered
out of the room. thinking of other
things and feeling no curiosity about
the book. But he had thought of 1t
several times since with faint, vague
uneasiness; and now when he entered
the lobby he walked directly into the
parlor where he had seen the book.
The room was empty, as 1t always was
on Sunday mornings, and the fiamboy-
ant volume was still upon the table
evidently a fixture as a sort of local
Almanach de Gotha. or Burke. for the
enlightenment of tenants and boarders
He turned to the index where the
names OF the five hundred Most Promi-
nent Citizens and Families in the His
tory of the City were arranged in al
phabetical order. and ran his finger
down the column of AS: Albeit, Alb
bott, Abrams, Adams. Adams, Adler.
Akers, Albertsmeyer. Alexander. Allen,
Ambrose. Ambuhl. Anderson, Andrews,
Appenbasch. Archer. Arszman, Ash
craft, Austin, Avey.
Georges eyes remained for some
time fixed on the thin space between
the names Allen" and Ambrose"
Then he closed the book quietly, and
went up to his own room, agreeing
with the elevator boy. on the way.
that it was getting to be mighty
nasty wet and windy day outside.
The elevator boy noticed nothing un-
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 1t,
longed for 1t. hoping acutely that they
might live to see the day when it would
come to pass. And now 1t had hap
got his come-upance.
He had got it three times filled and
running over. The city had rolled over
his heart, burying 1t under, as it rolled
over the Majors and buried 1t under.
The city had rolled over the Amber
sons and buried them under TO the last
vestige; and IL 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 a nest of
cracksr'
George Minafer had got his come
upance. but the people who had so
longed for it were not there to see 1t,
and they never knew it. Those who
were still living had forgotten all
about 1t 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 a perceptible alteration of coun-
tenance. 1t seemed to George that he
felt emanating from the outwardly i'm
perturbable person of his mothers old
friend a 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. Fanny
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 Of
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
fiatten 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 1t unnoticed. and
the disappearance of Fanny and her
nephew was not exceptional. People
no longer knew their neighbors as a
matter Of course; one lived for years
next door to strangers-that sharpest
of all the changes since the old days
and friend would lose sight of
friend for year. and not know 1t.
One May day George thought he had
glimpse of Lucy. He was not GER
tain. but he was sufficiently disturbed,
in spite of his uncertainty. A promo
tion 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 cor
ner which brought him in sight Of the
apartment house entrance. though two
blocks distant from 1t. he saw charm