The Magnificent Ambersons Page #5

If you aren't the queerest

girl. What's unsettled?

Well for one thing, George,

you haven't decided on

anything to do yet.

Or at least if you have,

you've never spoken of it.

Lucy, haven't you perfectly

well understood that I don't

intend to go into a business

or adopt a profession?

Well what are you going to do, George?

Why, I expect to lead

an honorable life.

I expect to contribute my

share to charities,

and take part in,

well in, movements.

- What kind?

- Whatever appeals to me.

I should like to revert to the

questions I was asking you,

- if you don't mind.

- No, George...

- I think you'd better...

- Your father's a businessman

- He's a mechanical genius.

- It is your father's idea...

- Or he's both.

isn't it your father's idea that I

ought to go into business and you

oughtn't to be engaged to me until I do?

No, I've never once

spoken to him about it.

But you know that's the

way he does feel about it?

Yes.

Do you think that I'd be

very much of a man if I let

another man dictate to

me my own way of life?

George! Who's dictating

your way of life?

I don't believe in the whole

world...scrubbing dishes,

selling potatoes or

trying law cases.

No, I dare say I don't care

any more for your father's

ideals than he does for mine.

- George?

- Giddap, Pendennis!

Well, seems to have recovered.

Looks the highest good spirits.

- I beg pardon?

- Your grandson.

Last night he seemed

inclined to melancholy.

What about?

Not getting remorseful about all the

money he spent in college, is he?

- I wonder what he thinks I'm made of.

- Gold.

And he's right about

that part of you, Father.

- What part?

- Your heart.

I suppose that may account

for how heavy it feels

nowadays, sometimes.

This town seems to be

rolling right over

that old heart you

mentioned just now, Jack.

Rolling over it and

burying it under.

- I miss my best girl.

- We all do.

Lucy's on a visit, father. She's

spending a week with a school friend.

She'll be back Monday.

George, how does it happen

you didn't tell us before?

You never said a word to

us about Lucy's going away.

Probably afraid to.

He didn't know that what

he might break down and cry

if he tried to speak of it.

Isn't that so, Georgie?

- Or didn't Lucy tell you she was going?

- She told me.

At any rate, Georgie didn't approve.

I suppose you two aren't speaking again?

Gene, what's this I hear

about someone else opening up

another horseless carriage

shop, somewhere

- out in the suburbs?

- Ah, I suppose they'll

drive you out of business,

or else the two of you'll get together and

drive all the rest of us off of the streets!

Well, we'll even things up by

making the streets bigger.

Automobiles will carry our streets

clear out to the county line.

Well I hope you're wrong, because

if people go to moving that far,

real estate values here in

the old residence part of town

will be stretched pretty thin.

So your devilish machines are going

to ruin all your old friends, eh Gene?

You really think they're going

to change the face of the land?

They're already doing it, Major,

and it can't be stopped.

- Automobiles are...

- Automobiles are a useless nuisance.

What did you say George?

I said automobiles are

a useless nuisance.

Nothing amount to anything

but a nuisance, and they had

no business to be invented.

Course you forget

Mr. Morgan makes them.

Also did his share in inventing them.

If you weren't so thoughtless, he

might think you rather offensive.

I'm not sure that George

is wrong about automobiles.

With all their speed forward, they

may be a step backward in civilization.

May be that they won't add

to the beauty of the world,

or the life of men's souls.

I'm not sure.

But automobiles have come.

And almost all outward things

are going to be different

because of what they bring.

They're going to alter war and

they're going to alter peace.

And I think men's minds are going

to be changed in subtle ways

because of automobiles.

And it may be that George is right.

Maybe, that in

we can see the inward change

in men by that time,

I shouldn't be able to defend

the gasoline engine, but would

have to agree with George,

that automobiles had no business

to be invented.

Well Major,

if you'll excuse me. Fanny.

- Oh Eugene, ple...

- Isabel.

Got to run down to the shop

and speak to the foreman.

- I'll see you to the door.

- Don't bother sir, I know the way.

I'll come to.

- Georgie dear, what did you mean?

- Just what I said.

He was hurt.

I...don't see why he should be.

I didn't say anything about him.

Didn't seem to me to be hurt,

he seemed perfectly cheerful.

What made you think he was hurt?

I know him.

- By Jove, Georgie; you are a puzzle!

- In what way, may I ask?

Well, it's a new style, courting

a pretty girl I must say for a

young fellow to go deliberately

out of his way to try and

make an enemy of her father,

by attacking his businesses!

By Jove!

It's a new way of winning a woman.

George!

You struck just the right

treatment to adopt, you're

doing just the right thing.

- Oh, what do you want?

- Her father would thank you if

he could see what you're doing.

Quit the mysterious detective

business. You make me dizzy.

You don't care to hear that I

approve of what you're doing?

For the gosh sakes, what in

the world is wrong with you?

Oh, you're always picking on me, always

- Ever since you were a little boy!

- Oh my gosh!

You wouldn't treat anybody in the

world like this except old Fanny!

"Old Fanny", you'd say, "It's nobody

but old Fanny, so I'll kick her."

"Nobody'll resent it, so

I'll kick her all I want to."

And you're right. I haven't got

anything in the world since my

brother died. Nobody, nothing...

- Oh my gosh!

- I never never in the world

would have told you about it,

or even made the faintest reference

to it if I hadn't seen

that somebody else had told you

- or you found out for

yourself in some way.

- Somebody else had told me what?

How people are talking about your mother.

What did you say?

Of course, I understood what

you were doing when you

started being rude to Eugene.

I knew you'd give Lucy up in a

minute if it came to a question

of your mother's reputation.

- Look here!

- Because you said...

- Look here! Just what do you mean?

I only wanted to say that I'm

sorry for you, George, that's all.

But it's only old Fanny,

so whatever she says,

pick on her for it.

Hammer her! Hammer her...

- Jack said...

- It's only poor old lonely Fanny!

Uncle Jack said if there was

any gossip it was about you!

He said people might be laughing

about the way you ran

after Morgan, but that was all!

Oh yes, it's always Fanny!

- Ridiculous old Fanny! Always! Always!

- Listen!

You said mother let him come here just

on your account, and now you say...

He did! Anyhow, he liked to

dance with me. He danced with me

as much as he did with her.

You told me mother never saw him

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