iHiiiiHiiinniiiiiuiiiiiMiimiHi i By 2 Copy111 ty Doubleday, Pag & Company. v liiiniiHinnniiiinuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiHiiiiiiiiinuiiiiiiiiiiiii "IT'S 'AU REVOIR TILL TONIGHT, ISN'T IT?" Synopsis. Major Ambersbn had caade a fortune in 1873 when other people were losing fortunes, and the magnificence of the Ambersons began then. Major Amberson laid out-a 200-acre "development," with roads and statuary", and in the center of a four-acre tract, on Amberson avenue, built for himself the most magnificent mansion Midland City had ever seen. When the major's daughter married young Wilbur Minafer the .neighbors predicted that as Isabel could never really love Wilbur all her love would be bestowed upon the children. There is only one child, however, George Amberson Minafer, and his upbringing and his youthful accomplishments as a mischief maker are quite in keeping with the most pessimistic predictions. By the, time George goes away to college he does not attempt to conceal his belief that the Ambersons are about the most important family in the world. At a ball given In his honor when he returns from college, George monopolizes Lucy Morgan a stranger and the prettiest girl present, and gets on famously with her until he learns that a "queer looking duck" at whom he had been poking much fun Is the young lady's father. He is Eugene Morgan, a former resident of Bigburg, and he is returning to erect a factory and to build horseless carriages of his own invention. Eugene had been an old admirer of Isabel's and they had been engaged when Isabel threw, him over because of a youthful indiscre . tion and married Wilbur Minafer. George makes rapid progress in his courtship of Lucy. ' - CHAPTER VI. 4 The appearance of Miss Lucy Mor gan the next day, as she sat in George's fast cutter, proved so charm ing that her escort was stricken to soft words instantly and failed to Con trol a poetic impulse. "You look like" he said. "Your face looks like it looks like a snowflake on a lump of coal. I mean aa snowflake that would be a rose-leaf too !" "Perhaps you'd better look at the reins," she returnea. . we aimosr, up- set just then." George declined to heed this advice. "Because there's too much pink In your cheeks for a snowflake," he con tinued. "What's that fairy story about snow-white and rose-red 'We're going pretty fast, jMr. Mina fer!" "Well, you see, I'm only here for two weeks." "I mean the sleigh 1" she explained. We're not the only people on the street, you know." "Oh, they'll keep out of the way." "That's very patrician charioteeer lng, tut it seems to me a horse like this needs guidance. Tm sure he's going almost twenty miles an hour." "That's nothing," said, George; but he consented to look forward again. "He an trot under three minutes, all right" He laughed.' "I suppose your father thinks-he can build a horseless carriage to go that fast!" "They go that fast already, some times.' "Yes," said I George; "they do for about a hundred feet ! Then they give a yell and burn up." i Evidently she decided not to defend ner fathers faith In horseless car riages, for she laughed and said noth ing. The cold air was polka-dotted with snowflakes, and trembled to the loud, continuousjlngling of sleigh- bells. Boys and girls, all aglow and panting jets of vapor, darted at the passing sleighs to ride on the runners, or sought to rope their sleds to any vehicle whatever, but the fleetest no more than just touched the flying cut ter, though a hundred soggy mittens grasped for it, then reeled and whirled till sometimes the wearers of those daring mittens plunged flat in the snow and lay a-sprawl, reflecting. But there came panting and chug- ging up that fat thoroughfare a thing which some day was to spoil all their sleightime merriment save for the rashest and most disobedient. It was vaguely like a topless surrey, but cum brous with unwholesome excrescences fore- and aft, while underneath were spinning leather belts and something that whirred and howled and seemed to stagger.- The rlde-stealers made no attempt to fasten their sleds to a con trivance so nonsensical and yet so fearsome. Instead they gave over their sport and concentrated all their ener gies in their lungs, so that up and down the street the one cry shrilled increasingly : "Git a hoss ! Git a hoss 1 Git a hoss! Mister, why don't you git a hoss?" But. the mahout in charge, sitting solitary on the front seat, was unconcerned he laughed, .and now and then ducked a . snowball without losing any of his good-nature. It was Mr. Eugene Morgan who exhibited so cheerful a countenance between the forward visor of a deer-stalker cap and the collar of a fuzzy gray ulster. "Git a hoss!" the children shrieked, and gruffer voices joined them. Glt a hoss ! Git a hoss ! . Git a hoss ! George Minafer was correct thus ar; the twelve miles an hour of such a machine would never overtake George's trotter. The, cutter was al ready scurrying between the stone pil ars nt the entrance to Amberson ad-1 dltlon. "That's my grandfather's," said George, nodding toward the Amberson ai&nsion. I ought to know that!" liacr .vt' claimed. "We stayed there late enough the laTto STHeand J mother and Miss Fanny Minafer got the mu- 8tctin.A r,iv onnfwn xvhpn everybody else had gone downstairs n .1 ai iij ii . uu uie uuaies were ueiug put uwajr in their cases. Papa danced part of it with Miss Minafer and the rest with your mother. Miss Mlnaf er's your aunt. Isn't she?" "Yes ; she lives with us. ; That's our house rest hcTfmd irrandfethw He waved a MaUttk mantlet to indlcaU .... ' - . ' . M BOOTH TARKINGTON the house Major Amberson had built for Isabel as a wedding gift. He frowned as they passed a closed car riage and pair. The body of this com fortable vehicle sagged slightly to one siae , tne paint was old and seamed with hundreds of minute cracks like uiue rivers on a black map; the coacnman, a rat and elderly darky, seemed to drowse upon the box; but the open window afforded the occu- pants of the cutter a blimpse of a tired, fine old face, a silk hat, a pearl ue ana an astrachan collar, evidently out to take the air. "There's your grandfather now,' said Lucy. "Isn't it?" George's frown was not relaxed. "Yes, it is ; and he ought to give that rat trap away and sell those old horses. They're a disgrace, all shaggy not even clipped. I suppose he doesn't notice it people get awful funny when they get old; they seem to lose their self-respect, sort of." 'He seemed a real Brummell to me," she said. 'Oh, he keeps up about what he wears, well enough, but Another thing I don't think he ought to allow : a good many people bought big lots and they built houses on 'em ; then the price of the land kept getting ! higher, and they'd sell part of their yards and let the people that bought It build on It to live in, till they haven't hardly any of 'em got. big, open yards any more, and It's getting all built up. The way it used to be It was a gentleman's country estate, and that's the way my grandfather ought to keep it. He lets these people take too many liberties : they do anything they-want to." "But how could he stop them?" Lucy asked, surely with reason. "If he sold them the land it's theirs, isn't it?" , George remained serene in the face of this apparently difficult . question. He ought to have all the tradespeople boycott the families that sell part of their yards that way. All he'd have to do would be to tell the tradespeople they wouldn't get any more orders from the family if they didn't do it." "From 'the family?' What family?" "Our family," said George, unper turbed. "The Ambersons." "I see !" she murmured, and evident- ly she did see something that .he did "There's Your Grandfather 8aid Lucy. Now," not, for, as she lifted her muff to her face he asked: - - "What are you laughing at now?" "Why?" N ' "You always - seem to have some le secret of your own to get happy overI .... t ' . , " 'Always V " she exclaimed. "What a big word, when we only met last I Tlffrtlt !" ' ' : " t- ' -' - nitrht! "That's another case of it," he ald. with obvious sincerity. "One of the reasons I don't like you much ! is you've got that way of. seeming qui- etly superior to everybody else.' "I!" she cried. "I have? "Oh,l you thin you keep It t r 4g IB A : y s 8 S t , H confidential , to yourself,. but it's plain enqftgiU 7 I don't i believe in that kind of thing. I think the World's like this : .there's a few people that their birth and position, and so on, puts them at the top, and they ought to treat each other, entirely as equals." His voice betrayed a little emotion as he added, I wouldn't speak like this to every body.' 'Ton mean you're confiding your deepest creed--or code, what ever It is to me?" "Go on; make fun of it, then!" George said bitterly. "You do think you're terribly clever ! It makes me tired!" Well, as you don't like my seeming quietly superior,' afterthis Til be nois ily 'superior," she returned cheerfully. We aim to please!" "I had a notion before I came for you today that we were going to quar rel," he said. No, we won't: it takes two!" She laughed and waved her muff toward a new house, not auite completed, stand- ing in a field upon their right. They had passed beyond Amberson addition and were leaving the northern fringes of the. town for the open country. "Isn't that a beautiful house!" she ex- claimed. "Papa and I call it our Beau tiful House." George was not pleased. "Does It belong to you?" "Of course not! Papa brought me out here the other day, driving in his machine, and we both loved it. It's so spacious and dignified and plain." "Yes, it's plain enough!" George grunted. "Yet it's lovely ; the gray-green roor and shutters give just enough color, with the trees, for the long white walls. It seems to be the finest house I've seen in this part of the country.' George was outraged by an enthu siasm so ignorant not ten minutes ago they, had passed the Amberson mansion. "Is. that a sample of your taste in architecture?" he asked. "Yes. Why?" "Because it strikes me you better go somewhere and study the -subject a little!" - , , : Lucy looked puzzled. "What makes you have so much feeling about It? Have I offended you?" "'Offended' nothing!" George re turned brusquely. "Girls usually think they know it all as soon as they've learned to dance and dress and flirt a little. They never know any thing about things like architecture, for instanceJ That house was about as bum a house as any house I ever saw!" He spoke of it in the past tense, be cause they had now left it far behind then; a human habit of curious sig nificance. "It was like a house meant for a street ih the city. What kind of a house was that for people of any taste to build out here in the coun try?" , "But papa says it's built that way on purpose.. There are a lot or other houses being built in this direction, and papa says the city's coming out this way; and in a year or two that house will be right in town." "It was a bum house, anyhow," said George crossly. "I don't even know the people that are building it. They say a lot of riffraff come to town every year nowadays and there's other riff raff that have always lived here, and have made a little money, and act as if they owned the place. Uncle Syd ney was talking about It yesterday: he says he and some of his friends are organizing a' country club, and already some of these riffraff are worming into it people he never heard of at all! Anyhow I guess it's pretty clear you don't, know a great deal about archi tecture.'.' She demonstrated the completeness of her amiability . by laughing. "I'll know something about the north pole before long," she said, "if we keep going much farther in this direction !" At this he was remorseful. "All Tight j1 we'll turn . and drive south awhile till you get warmed up again. I expect we have been going against the wind about long enough. Indeed, I'm .sorry!" , . , He said, "indeed, rm sorry, m a nice rway, and looked very , strikingly handsome when he said it, she thought. No doubt It is true that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner repented than over all the saints who consistently remain holy, and the rare, sudden gentlenesses of arrogant people have Infinitely more effect than the continual gentleness of gentle, people. Arrogance turned gentle melts the heart; and Lucy gave her companion a little sidelong, sunny nod of acknowledgment. George was ; dazzled. by, the quick glow or ner eyes, and found himself at a loss for some- thing to say. Having turned ; about he kept his horse to a walk, and at this gait the sleighbells tinkled but intermittently. The snow no longer fell, and far ahead, In a grayish cloud that lay upon the land, was me town. Lucy looked at this distant thicken ing reflection. "When we get this far out we can see there must be quite a little moke hanging over the town,' she - said. ' "1 suppose thaf because iit s gruwmg. as u grows Digger I seems to get ashamed of. Itself, so it lxl. -- ' A . ' . 11 make; when of it says it ,used to be a bit nicer he lived here: he, always speaks differently he always has a gentle look, a particular tone of voice, I've noticed. He must have been very fond of It - From the way he talks you'd think life here then was just one long midsummer serenade, tie declares It was always sunshiny, that the air wasn't like the, air anywhere else that, as he remembers it, there always seemed to be gold dust in the air. I doubt it! I think it doesn't seem to be duller air to him now just on account of having a little soot In it sometimes, but probably because he was twenty years younger then. It seems to me the gold dust ho thinks 1 was here Is just his being youug that he remembers. - I think it was just youth. It is pretty pleasant to be young, isn't it?" v "You're a funny girl," George said gently. "But your voice sounds pretty nice when1 you think and talk along to gether like that!" ' V The horse shook himself all over. and the Impatient sleighbells made his wish audible. Accordingly George tightened the reins, and the cutter was off again at a threeminute trot, no despicable rate of speed. It was not long before they were again passing Lucy's Beautiful House, and here George thought fit to put, an appendix to his remark. "You're a funny girl, and you know a lot but I don't be lieve you know much about architeo ture !" , Coming toward them, black against the snowy road, was a strange silhou ette. It approached moderately and without visible means of progression, so the matter seemed from a distance ; but as the cutter shortened the dis tance the silhouette was revealed to be Mr. Morgan's horseless carriage, con veying four people atop: Mr. Morgan with George's mother beside him, and, in the rear seat, Miss Fanny Minafer and the Hon. George Amberson. All four seemed to be in the liveliest hu mor, like high-spirited people upon a new adventure; and Isabel waved her handkerchief dashingly as the cutter flashed by them. "For , the Lord's- sake!" George gasped. "Your mother's a dear," said Lucy. Ing things ! She looked like a Russian princess, though I doubt if they're that handsome." George said nothing ; he drove on till they had crossed Amberson addi tion and reached the stone pillars at the head of National avenue. There he turned- "Let's go back and take another look at that old sewing machine," he said. ziest " . He left the sentence unfinished, and' presently they were again In sight of the old sewing machine. George shout ed mockingly. Alas ! three figures stood in the road, and a pair of legs with the toes turned up indicated that a fourth figure lay upon its back in the snow, beneath a horseless carriage that had decided to need a horse. George became vociferous with laughter, and coming up to his trot ter's best gait, snow spraying from runners and every hoof, swerved to the side of the road and shot by shout ing, "Git a hoss ! .N Git a hoss ! Git a hoss!" Three hundred yards away he turned and came back, racing; leaning out as he passed, to wave jeeringly at the group about the disabled machine: "Git a hoss!. Git a hoss! Git a" The trotter had broken into a gallop, and Lucy cried a warning: "Be care ful!" she said. "Look where you're driving! There's a ditch on that side. Look" George turned too late; the cutter's right runner went Into the ditch and snapped off ; the little sleigh upset, and, after dragging Its occupants some fifteen yards, left them lying together in a bank of snow. Then the vigorous young horse kicked himself free of all annoyances and disappeared down the road, galloping cheerfully. CHAPTER VII. When George regained some meas ure of his presence of mind Miss Lucy Morgan's cheek, snowy and cold, was pressing his nose slightly to one side; and p. monstrous amount of her fur boa seemed to mingle with an equally unplausible quantity of snow - in his mouth. He was confused, but con scious of no objection to . any of these juxtapositions. She was apparently uninjured, for she sat up, hatless, her hair down, and said mildly: "Good heavens!" Though her father had been under his machine when they passed, he was the first to reach them. . He threw himself on his knees beside his daugh ter, but found her already laughing. I and was reassured. "They're ' all right," i he called to Isabel, who was running toward them, ahead of her brother and Fanny Minafer. , "This I snowbank's a feather bed nothing the matter with them at all. Don't look so pale !" "Georgle I" she gasped. "Georgle! -Georgle was on his feet, snow all over him. "Don't make a fuss, mother ! Noth ing's the matter. That darned silly horse" Sudden tears stood In Isabel's eyes. "To see you down underneath drag- I ging oh ! " Then with shaking hands ' she began to brush the snow from him. "Let me alone," he protested. "You'll ruin your gloves. You'r getting snow i all over you, and' '"No, no I she cried. : fTouTl catch I cum jruu uusia caiui vuiui &uu she continued to brush him. . 1 J . . . -1 U 1 J I A J Miss Fanny acted as lady's maid; and both victims of the accident were presently restored to about their usual appearance and condition of apparel." I in fact, encouraged by the two older gentlemen, the entire party, with one exception, decided that the episode was after all a merry one. and bezan to laugh about it. But 'George was glummer than the December twilight 1 now .rwiftly closing in. "That darned horse !" he said. "I wouldn't bother about Pendennls, Georgle," said his uncle. "You can send a man out for what's left of the cutter tomorrow, and Pendennls will gallop home to his stable: he'll be there a long while before we will, be: cause all we've got to depend on to get us home is Gene Morgan's broken- down chafing dish yonder." They were approaching the machine as he spoke, and his friend, again un derneath it, heard him. He emerged, smiling. "Shell go," he said. "What !" "All aboard!" He offered his Hand to Isabel. She was smiling but still pale, and her eyes, in spite of the smile, kept upon George in a shocked . anxiety. Miss Fanny had already mounted to the rear seat, and George, after helping Lucy Morgan to climb p beside his aunt, was following. Isabel saw that his shoes' were light things of patent "Good Heavcnslw leather, and that snow was clinging to them. She made a little rush toward him, and, as one of his feet rested on the iron step of the machine, in mounting, she began to clean the snow from his shoe with her almost aerial lace handkerchief. i"You mustn't catch cold!" she cried. . "Stop that !" George shouted, and furiously withdrew i his1 foot. "For heaven's sake get in! You're stand ing in the snow yourself. Get in!" Isabel consented, turning to Morgan, whose habitual expression of appre- hensiveness was somewhat accentu ated. He climbed up after her, George Amberson having gone to the other side. "You're the same Isabel I used to know!" he said In a low voice. "You're a divinely ridiculous woman.' "Am I, Eugene?" she said, not dis pleased. "'Divinely' and 'ridiculous just counterbalance each other, don't they? Plus one and minus one equal nothing; so you mean I'm nothing in particular?" jno, ne answered, tugging at a lever. "That doesn't seem to be pre cisely what I meant. There!" This exclamation referred to the subterra nean machinery, for dismaying sounds came from beneath the floor, and the vehicle plunged, then rolled noisily forward. "Jtsenoiar' ueorge Amoerson ex claimed. ."She does move! It must be another accident" "'Accident?'" Morgan shouted over the "din. "No ! She breathes, she stirs ; she seems to feel a thrill of life along her keel !" And ha began to sing "The Star Spangled Banner." Amberson joined him lustily, and sang on when Morgan stopped. His nephew, behind, was gloomy. He had overheard his mother's conversation with the inventor: it seemed curious to him that this Morgan, of whom he had never heard, until last night, should be using tne name "isaDei" so easily; and George felt that it was not just the thing for, his mother to call Morgan "Eugene ;" the resentment of the previous night came upon George again. Meanwhile his mother and Morgan continued their talk; but he could no longer hear what they said; the noise of the car and his uncle's songful mood prevented. He marked how animated Isabel seemed; it was not strange to' see his mother so gay, but It was strange that a man not of the family should be the cause of her gayety. And George sat f rowning. Lucy turned to him. "You tried to swing underneath me and break the fall for me when we went over," she said. "I knew you were doing that, and it was nice of you." "Wasn't any fall to speak of," he returned brusquely. 'Couldn't have hurt either of us." "Still It was friendly, of you and awfully quick- too. Til not Til not forget it i" Her voice had a sound of genuine ness, very pleasant, and George be san to forget his annoyance with her 1 father. This anaoyance of bis had not heen lailgTlated by the cfrcnattcace that neither of the seats of the old sewing machine -was ? designed i for, three people, but when his . neighbor spoke thus ' gratefully he no longer minded the crowding in fact,. It pleased him so much that he began to wish the old' sewing machine would go even slower, George presently ad dressed Lucy hurriedly, almost trem ulously, speaking close to her, ear: "I forgot to tell you something: you're pretty nice ! I thought so the first second I saw you last night. Ill come for you tonight and take you to , the Assembly at the Amberson hoteL You're going, aren't you?" 'Yes, but Tm going with papa and the Sharons. Til see you there." 'Well, we'll dance the cotillion to gether, anyhow." JL Ul (All tttvl UVU Mi u&uuiltju Kinney." v V "What PV George's tone was shocked, as at incredible news. "WelL you could break that engagement, I guess, if you wanted to ! Girls always can get out of things when they want to. Won't you?" "I don't think so." "Why not?" "Because I promised him. Several days ago." "See here !" said the stricken George. . If you're going to decline to dance that cotillion with me simply becauss you've promised a a a miserable red-headed outsider like Fred Kinney, why we might as well quit!" "Quit what?" "You know perfectly well what I mean," he said nusKiiy. "I don't." "Well, you ought to!" "But I don't at all!" Gecrge, thoroughly hurt, and not a little embittered, expressed himself in a short outburst of laughter: "Well, I ought to have aeen It!" "Seen what?" "That you might turn out to be a girl who'd like a fellow of the red headed Kinney sort. I ought to have seen it from the first !" Lucy bore her disgrace lightly. "Oh, dancing a cotillion with a person doesn't mean that you like him but I don't see anything in particular the matter with Mr. Kinney. What is "I prefer not to discass said George curtly. "He's la enemy of mine." "Why?" "I prefer not to discus i it. "Well, but" "I prefer not to discus is it !" "Very well." She begin to hum tne air of the song which Ml.. George Am berson was now dlscourling, "O moom of my delight that ki)ort8 no wane" and there was no furfcer conversation on the back seat. - The contrivance Itofped with t. heart-shaking jerk btffore Isabel's house. The gentlemf to . Jumped down. helping Isabel and Fitmry to descend; there were friendly 1 fcalie takings and one that was not prelsty friendly. - , "It's au revolt till toiight, isn't itr Lucy asked, laughing . - - "Good afternoon !" Bali Geofge, and he did not wait, as Ml n datives did, to see the old sewing mitehine start brisk ly down the street, (toward the Shar-. ona; Its lighter load consisting now of only Mr. Morgan find his daughter. George went Into -th-i house at once. He found his fat ker reading the evening paper in the library. "Where are your mother and yozr Aunt Fan ny?" Mr. Minafer in uVred; not look ing up. A "They're coming," skid his son; and, casting himself heavily Into a chair, stared at the fire. His prediction wa verified a few moments later ; the tfevo ladles came, in cheerfully, unfastening their fur cloaks. "It's all rlghj, Georgle," said Isabel. "Your Uncle Beorge called to us that Pendennls jiit home safely. Put your shoes 'close to the fire, dear, or else go and changl them." "Look here," said Jeorge abruptly. "How about this man 'Morgan and hit old sewing machine? Dotn't he want to get grandfather tc puf ; money into it? Isn't he trying to work Uncle George for that? Isc It that what he's up to?" v . It was Miss Fannj who responded "You little silly!" sh cried, with sur prising sharpness. ''What on earth aro you talking abou!?, Eugene Mor gan's perfectly able t( Cjma his own Inventions these dayii"' "He strikes me t is that sort of man," George answered doggedly. "Isn't he, father?" Minafer set down I Us r&per for the; moment. "He was a ?feMy wild young; fellow twenty years '. . .i he said glancing at his wife absently. "JBfj was like you in one tVlng, Georgle; he) spent too much money J only .he,didnt; have any mother to get money out of! a grandfather for him, to he was usu ally in debt. But I bell eve I've heard. he's done fairly well f late years-. No, I can't say I . tnlnl he's .a swin4 dler, and I doubt if he needs anybody f else's money to back fcsrse.ro ,car-i riage." . ; . , "Well, what's he brought: the eta( thing here for, then? Pe file that own. elephants don't take Oir elephants' around with 'em when they go visit-1 ing. What's he got it huptqrF Tm sure I don't lknriH " said Mr. Minafer, resuming . his pw?. 'Torn' might ask him." - Isabel laughed and patted her bus1 band's . shoulder again. "Aren't yotii going to dress? Are't we all going( to the dance?" t It proves to to & happy cotillion for George and Lucy. (TO BB COM? IKIIC&J I V .1 J

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