"You're a funny girl, and you know a lot--but I don't believe you know much about architecture!" Coming toward them, black against the snowy road, was a strange silhouette.

It approached moderately and without visible means of progression, so the matter seemed from a distance; but as the cutter shortened the distance, the silhouette was revealed to be Mr.Morgan's horseless carriage, conveying four people atop: Mr.Morgan with George's mother beside him, and, in the rear seat, Miss Fanny Minafer and the Honorable George Amberson.

All four seemed to be in the liveliest humour, like high-spirited people upon a new adventure; and Isabel waved her handkerchief dashingly as the cutter flashed by them.
"For the Lord's sake!" George gasped.
"Your mother's a dear," said Lucy.

"And she does wear the most bewitching things! She looked like a Russian princess, though I doubt if they're that handsome." George said nothing; he drove on till they had crossed Amberson Addition and reached the stone pillars at the head of National Avenue.

There he turned.
"Let's go back and take another look at that old sewing-machine," he said.