they
didn't know a great deal about is architecture."

"Don't they?" asked Isabel, surprised. "Anyhow, their house is charming.
It's way out beyond the end of Amberson Boulevard; it's quite near that
big white house with a gray-green roof somebody built out there a year
or so ago. There are any number of houses going up, out that way; and
the trolley-line runs within a block of them now, on the next street,
and the traction people are laying tracks more than three miles beyond.
I suppose you'll be driving out to see Lucy to-morrow."

"I thought--" George hesitated. "I thought perhaps I'd go after dinner
this evening."

At this his mother laughed, not astonished. "It was only my feeble joke
about 'to-morrow,' Georgie! I was pretty sure you couldn't wait that
long. Did Lucy write you about the factory?"

"No. What factory?"

"The automobile shops. They had rather a dubious time at first, I'm
afraid, and some of Eugene's experiments turned out badly, but this
spring they've finished eight automobiles and sold them all, and they've
got twelve more almost finished, and they're sold already! Eugene's so
gay over it!"

"What do his old sewing-machines look like? Like that first one he had
when they came here?"

"No, indeed! These have rubber tires blown up with air--pneumatic! And
they aren't so high; they're very easy to get into, and the engine's
in front--Eugene thinks that's a great improvement. They're very
interesting to look at; behind the driver's seat there's a sort of box
where four people can sit, with a step and a little door in the rear,
and--"

"I know all about it," said George. "I've seen any number like that,
East. You can see all you want of 'em, if you stand on Fifth Avenue half
an hour, any afternoon. I've seen half-a-dozen go by almost at the same
time--within a few minutes, anyhow; and of course electric hansoms are
a common sight there any day. I hired one, myself, the last time I was
there. How fast do Mr. Morgan's machines go?"

"Much too fast! It's very exhilarating--but rather frightening; and they
do make a fearful uproar. He says, though, he thinks he sees a way to
get around the noisiness in time."

"I don't mind the noise," said George. "Give me a horse, for mine,
though, any day. I must get up a race with one of these things:
Pendennis'll leave it one mile behind in a two-mile run. How's
grandfather?"

"He looks well, but he complains sometimes of his heart: I suppose
that's nat