Cheaper tenants took their places,
and the rents were lower and lower, and the houses shabbier and
shabbier--for all these shabby houses, burning soft coal, did their
best to help in the destruction of their own value. They helped to
make the quarter so dingy and the air so foul to breathe that no one
would live there who had money enough to get "farther out" where there
were glimpses of ungrayed sky and breaths of cleaner winds. And with
the coming of the new speed, "farther out" was now as close to
business as the Addition had been in the days of its prosperity.
Distances had ceased to matter.
The five new houses, built so closely where had been the fine lawn of
the Amberson Mansion, did not look new. When they were a year old
they looked as old as they would ever look; and two of them were
vacant, having never been rented, for the Major's mistake about
apartment houses had been a disastrous one. "He guessed wrong,"
George Amberson said.. "He guessed wrong at just the wrong time!
Housekeeping in a house is harder than in an apartment; and where the
smoke and dirt are as thick as they are in the Addition, women can't
stand it.
Pages:
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393