Fanny Herself

the lives of the two women. They read and reread them. Fanny unconsciously

in, Frankfurt! And from his letters you would never know he had left Winnebago. I don't believe he actually sees anything of these cities-their people, and the queer houses, and the streets. I suppose a new city means nothin

k time. He would have to get a name in Europe before he could attempt an American tour. Just now every one was mad over Greinert. He was drawing i

ples. And look at his clothes! That tie! And his pants! And that awful collar! Why, his

was Olga Stumpf. (In the midst of her horror some imp in Fanny's brain said that her hands would be red, and thick, with a name like that.) An orphan. She sang. One of the Vienna conce

cious smile, her hair elaborately waved and dressed, her figure high-busted, narrow-waisted; earrings, chains

led the

st have been awfully lonely, Fanny. Often. And perhaps it will steady hi

nd never having any of the things I wanted, from blouses to music. But I won't work and deny

those electric qualities. It was an almost imperceptible letting down. You have seen a fine race horse suddenly break and lose his stride in the midst

, erect figure in one of the sample-rooms with its white-covered tables laden with china, or glassware, or Christmas goods, or whatever that particular salesman happened to carry. They lifted thei

finally disappeared altogether. Fanny took charge of the window displays, and often came back to the store at night to spend the evening at work with Aloysius. The

and mouth of the person whose life I am following. How did she look when she said that? What sort of expression did she wear when this happened? Perhaps the thing that Fann

o gaze at me, their forks poised halfway, their eyes blinded by my beauty. I could tramp up and down between the tables for hours, and no one would know I was there. I

d in a coil at the neck. Her face in repose was apt to be rather lifeless, and almost heavy. But when she talked, it flashed into sudden life, and you found yourself watching her mouth, fascinated. It was the key to her whole character, that mouth. Mobile, humorous, sensitive, the sensuousness of the lower lip corrected by the firmness of the uppe

en did the work of four men. They had a big stock on hand. Mrs. Brandeis was everywhere at once. She got an enormous amount of work out of her clerks, and they did not resent it. It is a gift that all born leaders have. She herself never sat down, and the clerks unco

ned that it was for her little girl, Minnie. She had promised the head this year. Next Christmas they would buy a body for it. Molly Brandeis's quick sympathy went out to the little girl who was to lavish her mother-love on a do

Minnie'll have something she can hold, at least." And she had

cutting cold of Wisconsin. Near the door the little store was freezing. Every ti

s, stacked high, fairly melted away, as did the dolls piled on the counters. Mrs. Brandeis imported her china

here they kept the sleds, and doll buggies, and drums. At night (the store was open until ten or eleven at Christmas time) they would trudge home through the snow, so numb with weariness that they hardly minded the cold. The icy wind cut their foreh

andwich, Mother, wi

t it, Fanny. I just

. He's really got everything." Or, "I'm looking for a present for a lady friend. Do you think a plate would be nic

fought and bled together, and won. When they left the store it was nearly midnight. Belated shoppers, bundle-laden, carrying h

r toe against a wooden box between the storm door and the inner door. It had evid

s." She went to the kitchen for a crowbar, and came back, still in her hat and coat. She pried open the box expertly, tore a

ell upon a card tossed aside in the hurry of unpacking. She picked it up, read i

s standing over the sitting-room register, r

! Why-" Her arms were around her mother's shoulders. She was pressing her glowing cheek against the pale, cold o

, the protest of the body she had over-driven and under-nourished for two or three weeks. As a patient she was as trying and fractious as a man, tossing about, threaten

le lunches they had had to gulp during the rush. There was to be a turkey, and Fanny had warned Annie not to touch it. She wanted to stuff it and roast it herself. She spent the morning in the kitchen, aside fro

, with a shock, that her mother's eyes looked strangely sunken, and her skin, around the jaws and just under the

ting a thing! You real

guess I'm tireder than I thought I was, dear. I think I've got a cold coming on, too. I'll lie down again after dinner

y shoveled away by the mufflered Winnebago sons and fathers. There was no man in the Brandeis household, and Aloysius had been too busy to perform the chores usua

"Way around to the woodshed. Where are those old mittens o

tossing it to the side, digging in again, and under. An occasional neighbor passed by, or a friend, and she waved at them, gayly,

The ice was wonderful. Oh, come on! Fanny skated very well. But she hesitated. Mrs. Brandeis, dozing on the

tend to sit here and gaze upon your sleeping beau

ad settled down before she returned, all glowing and rosy, and bright-eyed. Her blood was racing through her body. He

nd close, and depressing after the sparkle and rush of the a

the light. Her mother was huddled in a kimono on the so

ve I been sleeping all afterno

st of it caught her breath

t? What's

is miserable cold coming on. Is there any asperin in the house? I'll dos

ing for her. She swayed a little as she sat, and her lids came down over her eyes, flutteringly, as if the w

ike her mother's, and yet unlike. She ran, shivering with the cold, into her mother's bedroom. She switched on the light. Mrs. Brandeis was lying on the pillow, her eyes almost clo

for a second prize... in the basement, Aloysius... the trains... I

he eyes remained the same. "Oh, God!" She ran to the back of the house. "Annie! Annie, get u

w. She got into her clothes, shaking with cold and terror, and yet thinking very clearly, as she always did in a crisis. She put clean towels in the bathroom, pushed the table up to the bed, got a glass of w

went from the face on the pillow to that of the man bent over the bed. Something vague, cold, clammy, seemed to be closing itself around her heart. It was like an icy hand, squeezing there. There

id Fanny, at las

sitated a momen

otboard tightly. "Do you thi

es

filled the room, that breathing; it filled the house. Fanny took her mother's hand, that hand with the work-hardened palm and the broken nails. It was very cold. She looked down at it. The nails were blue. She began to rub it. She looked up into the faces of the two men. She picked up the other hand-snatched at it. "Look here!" she said. "Look here!" And then she stood up. T

She wet her lips and smiled, and tried again, forming the words carefully with

rse came over to her, and put a hand

his!" She reached forward and picked up that in

hild-I'm a

uavering, and ended in a shiver that seemed to die in her heart. The room

What had she had of life? she demanded fiercely. What? What? Her teeth came together grindingly. She breathed heavily through her nostrils, as if she had been running. And suddenly she began to pray, not with the sounding, unctions the

her!" She choked and shook herself angrily, and went on. "Is that fair? That's a rotten trick to play on a woman that gave what she gave! What did she ever have of

r. The nurse turned her around, suddenly