Booth Tarkington

“ The women fought the dirt all they could; but if they let the air into their houses they let in the dirt. It shortened their lives, and kept them from the happiness of ever seeing anything white. And thus, as the city grew, the time came when Lucy, after a hard struggle, had to give up her blue-and-white curtains and her white walls. ”

“ Like so many women for whom money has always been provided without their understanding how, she was prepared to be a thorough and irresponsible plunger.
Amberson, in his wearier way, shared her excitement, and in the winter, when the exploiting company had been formed, and he brought Fanny, her importantly engraved shares of stock, he reverted to his prediction of possibilities, made when they first spoke of the new light.
“We seem to be partners, all right,” he laughed. “Now let’s go ahead and be millionaires before Isabel and young George come home.” ”

“ The five new houses, built so closely where had been the fine lawn of the Amberson Mansion, did not look new. When they were a year old they looked as old as they would ever look; and two of them were vacant, having never been rented, for the Major’s mistake about apartment houses had been a disastrous one. “He guessed wrong,” George Amberson said. “He guessed wrong at just the wrong time! Housekeeping in a house is harder than in an apartment; and where the smoke and dirt are as thick as they are in the Addition, women can’t stand it. ”

“ He’s ‘always done his own figuring,’ he says; and it’s his lifelong habit to keep his affairs: and even his books, to himself, and just hand us out the money. Heaven knows he’s done enough of that!”
He sighed; and both were silent, looking out at the long flares of the constantly passing automobile headlights, shifting in vast geometric demonstrations against the darkness. Now and then a bicycle wound its nervous way among these portents, or, at long intervals, a surrey or buggy plodded forlornly by. ”

“ Fanny tells me you had a great ‘house-warming’ dance, and you keep right on being the belle of the ball, not any softer-hearted than you used to be. Fred Kinney’s father says you’ve refused Fred so often that he got engaged to Janie Sharon just to prove that someone would have him in spite of his hair. Well, the material world do move, and you’ve got the new kind of house it moves into nowadays—if it has the new price! And even the grand old expanses of plate glass we used to be so proud of at the other Amberson Mansion—they’ve gone, too, with the crowded heavy gold and red stuff. ”

“ They did not know that they were his helplessly obedient slaves, nor could they ever hope to realize their serfdom (as the first step toward becoming free men) until they should make the strange and hard discovery that matter should serve man’s spirit. ”

“ Fanny said thoughtfully. “Every day I hear of a new fortune some person has got hold of, one way or another—nearly always it’s somebody you never heard of. It doesn’t seem all to be in just making motor cars; I hear there’s a great deal in manufacturing these things that motor cars use—new inventions particularly. ”

“ Fanny admitted. “He seemed to be certain it would pay twenty-five per cent. the first year, and enormously more after that; and I’m only getting four on my little principal. People are making such enormous fortunes out of everything to do with motor cars, it does seem as if——” She paused. “Well, I told him I’d think it over seriously.”
“We may turn out to be partners and millionaires then,” Amberson laughed. “I thought I’d ask Eugene’s advice.” ”

“ I’m afraid she hasn’t been really well for several years. She isn’t stout you know—she hasn’t changed in looks much—and she seems rather alarmingly short of breath for a slender person. Father’s been that way for years, of course; but never nearly so much as Isabel is now. Of course she makes nothing of it, but it seemed rather serious to me when I noticed she had to stop and rest twice to get up the one short flight of stairs in their two-floor apartment. I told her I thought she ought to make George let her come home.”
“Let her?” Eugene repeated, in a low voice. “Does she want to?” ”