I may not see you again, Georgie. It’s quite...

I may not see you again, Georgie. It’s quite probable that from this time on we’ll only know each other by letter. Well, it’s an odd way to be saying goodbye: one wouldn’t have thought it, even a few years ago… We can’t ever tell what will happen at all, can we? Once I stood where we’re standing now, to say goodbye to a pretty girl… I was wild about her… In fact, we decided we couldn’t live without each other, and we were to be married. But she had to go abroad first with her father, and when we came to say goodbye we knew we wouldn’t see each other for almost a year. I thought I couldn’t live through it. And she stood here crying… Well, I don’t even know where she lives now, or if she is living—and I only happen to think of her sometimes when I’m here at the station waiting for a train. If she ever thinks of me at all she probably imagines I’m still dancing in the ballroom at the Amberson Mansion… Life and money both behave like quicksilver in a nest of cracks. And when they’re gone we can’t tell where—or what the devil we did with ‘em.

~ Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons

5 December 2009 · Comments · Permalink · http://aldr.in/270368002