How'd all these ducks get to know you so quick? I really don't see why my mother invited them.
Lucy Maybe she didn't want to offend their fathers and mothers.
I hardly think that my mother need worry about offending anybody in this old town.
Lucy It must be wonderful, Mr. Amberson, Mr. Minafer, I mean.
Lucy To be so important as that.
Oh, that isn't important...Anybody that really is anybody ought to be able to go about as they like in their own town, I should think.
Lucy What are you studying at school?
Lucy College.
Oh, lots of useless guff.
Lucy Why don't you study some useful guff?
What do you mean, useful?
Lucy Something you'd use later in your business or profession.
I don't intend to go into any business or profession.
Lucy No?
Lucy Why not?
Well, just look at them. That's a fine career for a man, isn't it? Lawyers, bankers, politicians. What do they ever get out of life, I'd like to know. What do they know about real things? What do they ever get?
Lucy What do you want to be?
Lucy Do you think George is terribly arrogant and domineering?
Oh, he's still only a boy. Plenty of fine stuff in him. Can't help but be. He's Isabel Amberson's son.
Lucy You liked her pretty well once, I guess, Papa.
Remember this. Our first machine. The original Morgan Invincible.
Lucy Did you ever see anything so lovely...as your mother [Isabel] - she's a darling, and Papa looks as if he were going to either explode or utter loud sounds.
It makes us all happy Eugene. Give him your hand, Fanny. There. If brother Jack were here, Eugene would have his three oldest and best friends congratulating him all at once. We know what brother Jack thinks about it, though.
I used to write verse about twenty years ago. Remember that?
I'm almost thinking I could do it again. To thank you for making a factory visit into such a kind celebration.
Lucy I know when you make him (the horse) walk, it's so you can give all your attention to proposing to me again...
Lucy, if you aren't the prettiest thing in this world. When are you going to say we're really engaged?
Lucy Not for years, so there's the answer.
Lucy dear, what's the matter? You look as if you're gonna cry. You always do that whenever I can get you to talk about marrying me.
Lucy I know it.
Lucy One reason is because I have a feeling it's never gonna be.
Lucy It's just a feeling. I don't know. Everything's so unsettled.
Lucy Well for one thing, George, you haven't decided on anything to do yet. Or at least if you have, you've never spoken of it.
Lucy, haven't you perfectly well understood that I don't intend to go into a business or adopt a profession?
Lucy Then, what are you going to do George?
Why, I expect to lead an honorable life. I expect to contribute my share to charities, and take part in, well, in movements.
Lucy What kind?
Whatever appeals to me. Isn't it your father's idea that I have to go into a business, and you oughtn't to be engaged to me until I do? Do you think I'd be very much of a man if I let another man dictate to me my own way of life?...I don't believe in the whole world scrubbing dishes, selling potatoes, or trying law cases. No, I dare say I don't care any more for your father's ideals than he does for mine.
Lucy Ever hear the Indian name for that little grove of beech trees?
No, and you never did either. Well?
Lucy The name was Loma-Nashah. It means: 'They-couldn't-help-it.'
Lucy Indian names don't. There was a bad Indian chief, the worst Indian that ever lived, and his name was...it was Vendonah. Means: 'Rides-Down-Everything.'
Lucy His name was Vendonah, same thing as: 'Rides-Down-Everything.'
I see. [She laughs] Go on.
Lucy Vendonah was unspeakable. He was so proud he wore iron shoes and walked over people's faces. So at last, the tribe decided that it wasn't a good enough excuse for him that he was young and inexperienced. He'd have to go. So they took him down to the river, put him in a canoe, and pushed him out from shore. The current carried him on down to the ocean. And he never got back. They didn't want him back, of course. They hated Vendonah, but they weren't able to discover any other warrior they wanted to make chief in his place. They couldn't help feeling that way.
I see. So that's why they named the place: 'They-couldn't help-it.'
Lucy Must have been.
So you're going to stay in your garden. You think it's better just to keep walking about among your flower beds and get old like a pensive garden lady in a Victorian engraving? Huh?
Lucy I suppose I'm like that tribe that lived here, Papa. I had too much unpleasant excitement. I don't want any more. In fact, I don't want anything but you.
You don't? What was the name of that grove?
Lucy 'They-could...'
No, the Indian name, I mean.
Lucy Oh. Mola-Haha. [They laugh together]
Mola-Haha. That wasn't the name you said.
Lucy Oh, I've forgotten.
So you have. Perhaps you remember the chief's name better?
Lucy I don't.
I hope some day you can forget it.
[disparagingly]
Horseless carriages. Auto-mobiles. People aren't going to spend their lives lying on their backs on the road letting grease drip in their face. No, I think you're father better forget about 'em.
Lucy Papa will be so grateful if he could get your advice.
I don't know that I've done anything to be insulted for.
Lucy You know, I don't mind you being such a lofty person, at all. I think its ever so interesting. But, Papa's a great man.
Lucy Don't you remember? We'd had a quarrel and we didn't speak to each other all the way home from a long, long drive. And since we couldn't play together like good children, of course, it was plain we oughtn't of play at all.
Lucy What I mean is, we've come to the point where it was time to quit playing. Well, what we were playing.
That being love, as you mean, don't you?
Lucy Something like that. It was absurd.
