"It would be monstrous!" George shouted. "Monstrous even if this
horrible thing hadn't happened, but now in the face of this--oh, that
you can sit there and even speak of it! Your own sister! O God! Oh--" He
became incoherent, swinging away from Amberson and making for the door,
wildly gesturing.

"For heaven's sake, don't be so theatrical!" said his uncle, and then,
seeing that George was leaving the room: "Come back here. You mustn't
speak to your mother of this!"

"Don't 'tend to," George said indistinctly; and he plunged out into the
big dimly lit hall. He passed his grandfather's room on the way to
the stairs; and the Major was visible within, his white head brightly
illumined by a lamp, as he bent low over a ledger upon his roll-top
desk. He did not look up, and his grandson strode by the door, not
really conscious of the old figure stooping at its tremulous work with
long additions and subtractions that refused to balance as they used to.
George went home and got a hat and overcoat without seeing either his
mother or Fanny. Then he left word that he would be out for dinner, and
hurried away from the house.

He walked the dark streets of Amberson Addition for an hour, then went
downtown and got coffee at a restaurant. After that he walked through
the lighted parts of the town until ten o'clock, when he turned north
and came back to the purlieus of the Addition. He strode through the
length and breadth of it again, his hat pulled down over his forehead,
his overcoat collar turned up behind. He walked fiercely, though his
feet ached, but by and by he turned homeward, and, when he reached the
Major's, went in and sat upon the steps of the huge stone veranda in
front--an obscure figure in that lonely and repellent place. All lights
were out at the Major's, and finally, after twelve, he saw his mother's
window darken at home.

He waited half an hour longer, then crossed the front yards of the new
houses and let himself noiselessly in the front door. The light in
the hall had been left burning, and another in his own room, as he
discovered when he got there. He locked the door quickly and without
noise, but his fingers were still upon the key when there was a quick
footfall in the hall outside.

"Georgie, dear?"

He went to the other end of the room before replying.

"Yes?"

"I'd been wondering where you were, dear."

"Had you?"

There was a pause; then she said timidly: "Wherever it was, I hope you
had