pg8867 [23]
"Mr. Pembroke is in the army," said Lucy primly. "He's extraordinarily graceful."
"In the army? Oh, I suppose he's some old friend of your father's."
"They got on very well," she said, "after I introduced them."
George was a straightforward soul, at least. "See here!" he said. "Are you engaged to anybody?"
"No."
Not wholly mollified, he shrugged his shoulders. "You seem to know a good many people! Do you live in New York?"
"No. We don't live anywhere."
"What you mean: you don't live anywhere?"
"We've lived all over," she answered. "Papa used to live here in this town, but that was before I was born."
"What do you keep moving around so for? Is he a promoter?"
"No. He's an inventor."
"What's he invented?"
"Just lately," said Lucy, "he's been working on a new kind of horseless carriage."
"Well, I'm sorry for him," George said, in no unkindly spirit. "Those things are never going to amount to anything. People aren't going to spend their lives lying on their backs in the road and letting grease drip in their faces. Horseless carriages are pretty much a failure, and your father better not waste his time on 'em."
"Papa'd be so grateful," she returned, "if he could have your advice."
Instantly George's face became flushed. "I don't know that I've done anything to be insulted for!" he said. "I don't see that what I said was particularly fresh."
"No, indeed!"
"Then what do you—"
She laughed gaily. "I don't! And I don't mind your being such a lofty person at all. I think it's ever so interesting—but papa's a great man!"
"Is he?" George decided to be good-natured "Well, let us hope so. I hope so, I'm sure."
Looking at him keenly, she saw that the magnificent youth was incredibly sincere in this bit of graciousness. He spoke as a tolerant, elderly statesman might speak of a promising young politician; and with her eyes still upon him, Lucy shook her head in gentle wonder. "I'm just beginning to understand," she said.
"Understand what?"
"What it means to be a real Amberson in this town. Papa told me something about it before we came, but I see he didn't say half enough!"
George superbly took this all for tribute. "Did your father say he knew the family before he left here?"
"Yes. I believe he was particularly a friend of your Uncle George; and he didn't say so, but I imagine he must have known your mother very well, too. He wasn't an inventor then; he was a young lawyer. The town was smaller in those days, and I believe he was quite well known."
"I dare say. I've no doubt the family are all very glad to see him back, especially if they used to have him at the house a good deal, as he told you."
"I don't think he meant to boast of it," she said: "He spoke of it quite calmly."
George stared at her for a moment in perplexity, then perceiving that her intention was satirical, "Girls really ought to go to a man's college," he said—"just a month or two, anyhow; It'd take some of the freshness out of 'em!"
"I can't believe it," she retorted, as her partner for the next dance arrived. "It would only make them a little politer on the surface—they'd be really just as awful as ever, after you got to know them a few minutes."
"What do you mean: 'after you got to know them a—'"
She was departing to the dance. "Janie and Mary Sharon told me all about what sort of a little boy you were," she said, over her shoulder. "You must think it out!" She took wing away on the breeze of the waltz, and George, having stared gloomily after her for a few moments, postponed filling an engagement, and strolled round the fluctuating outskirts of the dance to where his uncle, George Amberson, stood smilingly watching, under one of the rose-vine arches at the entrance to the room.
"Hello, young namesake," said the uncle. "Why lingers the laggard heel of the dancer? Haven't you got a partner?"
"She's sitting