The Magnificent Ambersons (The Growth Trilogy, #2)

by Booth Tarkington

They were happiest when the tearing down and building up were most riotous, and when new factory districts were thundering into life.

The women fought the dirt all they could; but if they let the air into their houses they let in the dirt. It shortened their lives, and kept them from the happiness of ever seeing anything white. And thus, as the city grew, the time came when Lucy, after a hard struggle, had to give up her blue-and-white curtains and her white walls. Indoors, she put everything into dull gray and brown, and outside had the little house painted the dark green nearest to black.