Booth Tarkington

“ In other words, so-called love is nothing more than mere propinquity.”
“Well—” Renfrew began, but paused, evidently puzzled. “Well, of course I see that nobody could be in love with anybody who didn't have any propinquity—I mean that never was around anywhere long enough for you to look at; and of course if you're in love, it's likely to be with somebody you know; but still, the way it seems to me, why, you aren't in love with everybody you do know, are you?” ”

“ We discover that, as Myrskwin has insisted in his notable monograph, love is nothing but the result of mere propinquity. In the cold light of science, all such interrelations are the result of the merest propinquity. Propinquity produces acquaintanceship, produces intimacy, produces friendship, produces love. ”

“ This hunted boy was not Robert: he was Master Thomas Kimball. Robert was his pursuer, and if ever there lived a happy, rosy-cheeked, care-free boy, it was this Robert. He was closely accompanied by Laurence Coy, who showed plainly a similar possession of happiness and health. Both jumped up and down, whooping.
“He's gone through that hole in the fence!” shouted Robert. “I said I bet we could drive him in there! Now she's got him!”
They were so intent upon the chase they were not concerned to identify the pair of grown people at a little distance from them. ”

“ The resulting irrelevance is not accomplished by the efforts of an actor; it is not a lie; it is genuine. And being obviously genuine, it is a secure armor against the penetration of adults, except the most ruthless. Now, since Renfrew was one of the mildest of men, and fond of his family, including Daisy, he was here in a pathetic case. ”

“ Daisy observed, bending her face down over the ant-hill. “They come up out their front door and run around like they're just crazy; then they go down cellar again—”
RENFREW whirled upon her. “Can't you understand a simple question? You're nine years old; you ought to be able to understand a few plain words of the simplest language.” .
He was vehement; and this seemed to puzzle her. “Are you mad about something, Renfrew?” she asked, regarding him gravely.
“See here!” he said. “A good deal depends on this for me, and I want to know. Now, once and for all, what do you do to Robert Eliot? ”

“ Renfrew said sympathetically “They can't all get it, I expect.”
“But they ought to!” she cried. “They ought to try to keep their minds alive! Can't they see we're living in a new world? Most of 'em don't seem to have the slightest notion that the old ideas have to go; and some of 'em actually don't even realize that the new ideas are new. ”

“ Your Aunt Clara was the stodgiest of all, if you don't mind my saying so. She insisted she'd 'heard all that'—you ought to've seen her expression!—when she was a girl!”
“She isn't my aunt,” Renfrew interposed hastily “She's only my great-aunt. I scarcely think of her as one of the family.”
“She was the worst of the whole club,” the indignant essayist informed him. “I might have known better than to expect such minds to grasp anything vital! What do they know? Nothing but their children's colds and the price of butter! They think they know something higher, but they don't. ”

“ HE gazed down on her coldly. “Don't you know you mustn't stand on your head in the public streets?”
“Why?” she asked absently, and seating herself on the grass at his feet, began to be interested in an ant-hill she discovered there.
“It's terrible!” he said. “It's an awful thing to do!”
“Well,” she returned, poking the ant-hill delicately with her forefinger, “most ev'rybody does it.”
“What!”
“I mean most ev'rybody I know.”
“Well, you quit it; that's all,” said Renfrew, and resuming his seat under the walnut tree near by, he looked at her frowningly. ”

“ Well, that's only since Daisy and Robert—”
But again she shook her head, interrupting: “Family traits go very deep. They may not show on the surface, but they're there. If one person in a family shows a certain trait, you can be pretty sure all the other members of that family have the same trait. They may suppress it for a long time, but it will come out sometime, maybe some other way..... I don't suppose you've heard of Freud, Renfrew?” ”

“ Daisy cried; and she began to jump up and down. “Will you geve me that lov-a-ly little doll-house down at Rewby's? It's got a staircase and wall-paper and—”
“How much is it?”
“Five dollars. And it's got a little table and some little chairs and—”
“Here,” said Renfrew; and he extended toward her his complete capital. “Will you promise me to let Robert Eliot alone?” He held the bill away from her. “Will you promise to make friends with him?”
“Why, that's all I been tryin' to do!” she cried.
“What?”
“Every single thing!” she said earnestly. “That's everything in the world is matter with him. ”

“ Renfrew said, and he leaned forward, emphasizing his seriousness by his attitude. “You've got this whole neighborhood upset. Why, no grown person could have made anything like the trouble you have, lately! Now, look here, you don't want to grow up to be like Aunt Clara, do you?”
“Aunt Clara?” Daisy said inquiringly, and was so inconsequent as to add: “She gave me four doughnuts when I was at her house yesterday. Four doughnuts and an apple.” ”

“ To have dealt in the one afternoon with two ladies so mysterious in their impulses and emotions, and consequently so incomprehensible in their remarks, was enough to leave any honest young gentleman certain of just one thing in his befuddlement: that no man could ever understand such a sex. ”

“ For instance, the way it ought to be, they would both go on developing and growing higher—”
“'Both?'” she interrupted. “Both of whom?”
“Well—” he faltered. “I mean—I mean, for instance, the husband and the wife. They would go on and on—”
“Oh, dear me!” she said.
“Is something the matter?” he asked anxiously, and his solicitous eyes seemed to indicate that he feared a physical anguish might have assailed her. “Do you feel—”
“No!” she said sharply, and added after a moment's thought: “Life is terrible!” ”

“ Frankly, since leaving Professor Moroff's classroom, where the first inklings of new thought were caught by the few serious undergraduates who were able to comprehend her ideas, frankly, since then I have given the question a long and thorough period of consideration, and the time has arrived to declare my conclusions, which are, frankly, that it is the duty of those among the new generation who are capable of deeper thinking, to become leaders in the movement. ”

“ Daisy she said coldly.
“What I mean,” he went on, “—you take a man that's in love, why, there's usually more to it than that. For instance, suppose I cared for some girl in that way,—I mean, suppose I was in love with her,—well, it wouldn't be on account of her propinquity or anything like that; it would be more on account of the way she looked, and how her voice sounded, and her hair and so forth—her qualities, I mean, and all such things and—” ”

“ You mustn't laugh. It's terrible. The sordid bickering—all day long when they're not in school—the whooping and shrillness—”
“But my little sister fights as much with little Elsie Threamer as she does with your brother, and after all, isn't it as much Robert's fault?”
“No,” said Muriel. “She maddens him. I've never seen a boy so goaded in my life. First she terrorized that dear little Laurence Coy, till Mrs. ”