THE AGE OF INNOCENCE, Edith Wharton, Part Three

[Music] the Age of Innocence Edith Wharton part 3 16 when Archer walked down the Sandy Main Street of St Augustine to the house which had been pointed out to him as Mr wellins and saw May Wellen standing under a magnolia with the sun in her hair he wondered why he had waited so long to come here was the truth here was reality here was the life that belonged to him and he who IED himself so scornful of arbitrary restraints had been afraid to break away from his desk because of what people might think of his stealing a holiday her first exclamation was Newland has anything happened and it occurred to him that it would have been more feminine if she had instantly read in his eyes why he had come but when he answered yes I found I had to see you her happy blushes took the Chill from her surprise and he saw how easily he would be forgiven and how soon even Mr letter Blair's mild disapproval would be smiled Away by a tolerant family early as it was the main street was no place for any but formal greetings and Archer longed to be alone with May and to pour out all his tenderness and his impatience it still lacked an hour to the late Wellen breakfast time and instead of asking him to come in she proposed that they should walk out to an old orange garden be beyond the town she had just been for a row on the river and the Sun that netted the little waves with gold seemed to have caught her in its meshes across the warm Brown of her cheek her blown hair glittered like silver wire and her eyes too looked lighter almost pale in their youthful limpidity as she walked beside Archer with her long swinging gate her face wore the vacant Serenity of a young marble athlete to Archer strained nerves the was as soothing as the sight of the blue sky and The Lazy River they sat down on a bench under the orange trees and he put his arm about her and kissed her it was like drinking at a Cold Spring with the sun on it but his pressure may have been more vement than he had intended for The Blood Rose to her face and she Drew back as if he had startled her what is it he asked smiling and she looked at him with surprise and answered nothing a slight embarrassment fell on them and her hand slipped out of his it was the only time that he had kissed her on the lips except for their fugitive Embrace in the bow foot conservatory and he saw that she was Disturbed and shaken out of her cool boyish composure tell me what you do all day he said Crossing his arms under his tilted back head and pushing his hat forward to screen the sun Dazzle to let her talk about familiar and simple things was the easiest way of carrying on his own independent train of thought and he sat listening to her simple Chronicle of swimming sailing and riding varied by an occasional dance at the Primitive Inn when a man of war came in a few Pleasant people from Philadelphia and Baltimore were picnicking at the inn and the Selfridge Marys had come down for 3 weeks because Kate Mary had had bronchitis they were planning to lay out a lawn tennis court on the Sands but no one but Pon may had rackets and most of the people had not even heard of the game all this kept her very busy and she had not had time to do more than look at the little Vellum book that Archer had sent her the week before the sonnets from the Portuguese but she was learning by heart how they brought the good news from gent to aches because it was one of the first things he had ever read to her and it amused her to be able to tell him that Kate Mary had never even heard of a poet called Robert Browning presently she started up exclaiming that they would be late for breakfast and they hurried back to the Tumbl down house with its pointless porch and unpruned hedge of plumbago and pink uranium where the wellin were installed for the winter Mr Well's sensitive Domesticity shrank from the discomforts of the slovenly Southern Hotel and at immense expense and in face of almost insuperable difficulties Mrs Welland was obliged year after year to improvise an establishment partly made up of discontented New York servants and partly drawn from the local African Supply the doctors want my husband to feel that he is in his own home otherwise he would be so wretched that the climate would not do him any good she explained winter after winter to the sympathizing philadelphians and baltimoreans and Mr Welland beaming across a breakfast table miraculously supplied with the most varied Delicacies was presently saying to Archer you see my dear fellow we camp we literally Camp I tell my wife and may that I want to teach them how to rough it Mr and Mrs Welland had been as much surprised as their daughter by the young man's sudden arrival but it had occurred to him to explain that he had felt himself on the verge of a nasty cold and this seemed to Mr Welland an alls sufficient reason for abandoning any Duty you can't can't be too careful especially towards Spring he said heaping his plate with straw colored griddle cakes and drowning them in golden syrup if I'd only been as prudent at your age May would have been dancing at the assemblies now instead of spending her Winters in a Wilderness with an old invalid oh but I love it here Papa you know I do if only newand could stay I should like it a thousand times better than New York Newland must stay till he has quite thrown off his cold said Mrs Welland indulgently and the young man laughed and said he supposed there was such a thing as one's profession he managed however after an exchange of telegrams with the firm to make his cold last a week and it shed an ironic light on the situation to know that Mr letterblair's Indulgence was partly due to the satisfactory way in which His Brilliant Young Junior partner had settled the Troublesome matter of the olinsky divorce Mr letterblair had let Mrs Welland know that Mr Archer had rendered an invaluable service to the whole family and that old Mrs Manson mingot had been particularly pleased and one day when may had gone for a drive with her father in the only vehicle the place produced Mrs Wellen took occasion to touch on a topic which she always avoided in her daughter's presence I'm afraid Ellen's ideas are not at all like like ours she was barely 18 when madora Manson took her back to Europe you remember the excitement when she appeared in Black at her coming out ball another of madora fads really this time it was almost prophetic that must have been at least 12 years ago and since then Ellen has never been to America no wonder she is completely europeanized but European Society is not given to divorce Countess olena thought she would be conforming to American ideas in asking for her Freedom it was the first time that the young man had pronounced her name since he had left skyer Cliffe and he felt the color rise to his cheek Mrs Wellen smiled compassionately that is just like the extraordinary things that foreigners invent about us They think we dine at 2:00 and countenance divorce that is why it seems to me so foolish to entertain them when they come to New York they accept our hospitality and then they go home and repeat the same stupid stories Archer made no comment on this and Mrs Welland continued but we do most thoroughly appreciate your persuading Ellen to give up the idea her grandmother and her uncle Lovel could do nothing with her both of them have written that her changing her mind was entirely due to your influence in fact she said so to her grandmother she has an unbounded admiration for you Poor Ellen she was always a wayward child I wonder what her fate will be what we've all contrived to make it he felt like answering if you'd all of you rather she should be buford's mistress than some decent fellow's wife you've certainly gone the right way about it and he wondered what Mrs Welland would have said if he had uttered the words instead of merely thinking them he could picture the sudden decomposer of her firm Placid features to which a lifelong mastery over Trifles had given an air of factitious Authority traces still lingered on them of a fresh Beauty like her daughters and he asked himself if May's face was doomed to thicken into the same middle-aged image of invincible innocence oh no he did not want May to have that kind of Innocence the Innocence that seals the Mind against imagination and the Heart against experience I verily believe Mrs Welland continued that if the horrible business had come out in the newspapers it would have been my husband's death blow I don't know any of the details I only asked not to as I told Poor Ellen when she tried to talk to me about it having an invalid to care for I have to keep my mind bright and happy but Mr Welland was terribly upset he had a slight temperature every morning while we were waiting to hear what had been decided it was the horror of his girls learning that such things were possible but of course dear newand you felt that too we all knew that you were thinking of May I'm always thinking of May the young man rejoined rising to cut short the conversation he had meant to seize the opportunity of his private talk with Mrs Welland to urge her to advance the date of his marriage but he could think of no arguments that would move her and with a sense of relief he saw Mr Welland and may driving up to the door his only hope was to plead again with May and on the day day before his departure he walked with her to the ruinous Garden of the Spanish mission the background lent itself to Illusions to European scenes and may who was looking her loveliest under a wide brimmed hat that cast a shadow of mystery over her two Clear Eyes kindled into eagerness as he spoke of Granada and the alhamra we might be seeing it all this spring even the Easter ceremonies at Seville he urged exaggerating his demands in the hope of a larger concession Easter in Seville and it will be lent next week she laughed why shouldn't we be married in Lent he rejoined but she looked so shocked that he saw his mistake of course I didn't mean that dearest but soon after Easter so that we could sail at the end of April I know I could arrange it at the office she smiled dreamily upon the possibility but he perceived that to dream of it sufficed her it was like hearing him read aloud out of his poetry books the Beautiful things that could not possibly happen in real life oh do go on newand I do love your descriptions but why should they be only descriptions why shouldn't we make them real we shall dearest of course next year her voice lingered over it don't you want them to be real sooner can't I persuade you to break away now she bowed her head Vanishing from him under her conniving hat Brim why should we dream away another year look at me dear don't you understand how I want you for my wife for a moment she remained motionless then she raised on him eyes of such despairing dearness that he half released her waist from his hold but suddenly her look changed and deepened inscrutably I'm not sure if I do understand she said is it is it because you're not certain of continuing to care for me me Archer sprang up from his seat my God perhaps I don't know he broke out angrily maywell and Rose also as they faced each other she seemed to grow in womanly stature and dignity both were silent for a moment as if dismayed by the unforeseen trend of their words then she said in a low voice if that is it is there someone else someone else between you and me He echoed her words slowly as though they were only half intelligible and he wanted time to repeat the question to himself she seemed to catch the uncertainty of his voice for she went on in a deepening tone let us talk frankly newand sometimes I felt a difference in you especially since our engagement has been announced dear what madness he recovered himself to exclaim she met his protest with a faint smile if it is it won't hurt us to talk about it she paused added lifting her head with one of her Noble movements or even if it's true why shouldn't we speak of it you might so easily have made a mistake he lowered his head staring at the black leaf pattern on the sunny path at their feet mistakes are always easy to make but if I had made one of the kind you suggest is it likely that I should be imploring you to hasten our marriage she looked downward too disturbing the pattern with the point of her sun shade while she struggled for expression yes she said at length you might want once for all to settle the question it's one way her quiet Lucidity startled him but did not mislead him into thinking her insensible under her hat brim he saw the palor of her profile and a slight Tremor of the nostril above her resolutely steadied lips well he questioned sitting down on the bench and looking up at her with a frown that he tried to make playful she dropped back into her seat and went on you mustn't think that a girl knows as little as her parents imagine one hears and one notices one has one's feelings and ideas and of course long before you told me that you cared for me I'd known that there was someone else you were interested in everyone was talking about it 2 years ago at Newport and once I saw you sitting together on The Veranda at a dance and when she came back in into the house her face was sad and I felt sorry for her I remembered it afterward when we were engaged her voice had sunk almost to a whisper and she sat clasping and unclasping her hands about the handle of her sun shade the young man laid his upon them with a gentle pressure his heart dilated with an inexpressible relief my dear child was that it if you only knew the truth she raised her head quickly then there is a truth I don't know he kept his hand over hers I meant the truth about the old story you speak of but that's what I want to know nuland what I ought to know I couldn't have my happiness made out of a wrong an unfairness to somebody else and I want to believe that it would be the same with you what sort of a life could we build on such foundations her face had taken on a look of such tragic courage that he felt like bowing himself down at her feet I've wanted to say this for a long time she went on I've wanted to tell you that when two people really love each other I understand that there may be situations which make it right that they should should go against public opinion and if you feel yourself in any way pledged pledge to the person we've spoken of and if there is any way any way in which which you can fulfill your pledge even by her getting a divorce Newland don't give her up because of me his surprise at discovering that her fears had fastened upon an episode so remote and so completely of the past as his love affair with Mrs Thorley rushworth gave way to wonder at the generosity of her view there was something superhuman in an attitude so recklessly unorthodox and if other problems had not pressed on him he would have been lost in Wonder at The Prodigy of the Well's daughter urging him to marry his former mistress but he was still dizzy with the glimpse of the precipice they had skirted and full of a new awe at the mystery of young girlhood for a moment he could not speak then he said there is no pledge no obligation whatever of the kind you think such cases don't always present themselves quite as simply is but that's no matter I love your generosity because I feel as you do about those things I feel that each case must be judged individually on its own merits irrespective of stupid conventionalities I mean each woman's right to her Liberty he pulled himself up startled by the turn his thoughts had taken and went on looking at her with a smile since you understand so many things dearest can't you go a little farther mother and understand the uselessness of our submitting to another form of the same foolish conventionalities if there's no one and nothing between us isn't that an argument for marrying quickly rather than for more delay she flushed with joy and lifted her face to his as he bent to it he saw that her eyes were full of happy tears but in another moment she seemed to have descended from her womanly Eminence to help less and timorous girlhood and he understood that her courage and initiative were all for others and that she had none for herself it was evident that the effort of speaking had been much greater than her studied composure betrayed and that at his first word of reassurance she had dropped back into the usual as a two adventurous child takes refuge in its mother's arms Archer had no heart to go on pleading with her he was too much disappointed at the vanishing of the new being who had cast that one deep look at him from her transparent eyes may seemed to be aware of his disappointment but without knowing how to alleviate it and they stood up and walked silently home 17 your cousin the Countess called on mother while you were away Janie Archer announced to her brother on the evening of his return the young man who was dining alone with his mother and sister glanced up in Surprise surpr and saw Mrs Archer's gaze demurely bent on her plate Mrs Archer did not regard her seclusion from the world as a reason for being forgotten by it and newand guessed that she was slightly annoyed that he should be surprised by Madame olena's visit she had on a black velvet polles with jet buttons and a tiny green monkey muff I never saw her so stylishly dressed Janie continued she came alone early on Sunday afternoon luckily the fire was lit in the drawing room she had one of those new card cases she said she wanted to know us because you'd been so good to her nuland laughed Madame molena always takes that tone about her friends she's very happy at being among her own people again yes so she told us said Mrs Archer I must say she seems thankful to be here I hope you liked her mother Mrs Archer Drew her lips together she certainly lays herself out to please even when she is calling on an old lady mother doesn't think her simple Janie interjected her eyes screwed upon her brother's face it's just my old-fashioned feeling dear May is my ideal said Mrs Archer ah said her son they're not alike Archer had left St Augustine charged with many messages for old Mrs mingot and a day or two after his return to town he called on her the old lady received him with unusual warmth she was grateful to him for persuading the Countess olena to give up the idea of a divorce and when he told her that he had deserted the office without leave and rushed down to St Augustine simply because he wanted to see may she gave an adapost chuckle and patted his knee with her puffball hand ah ah so you kicked over the traces did you and I suppose Augusta and Welland pulled long faces and behaved as if the end of the world had come but little may she knew better I'll be bound I hoped she did but after all she wouldn't agree to what I'd gone down to ask for wouldn't she indeed and what was that I wanted to get her to promise that we should be married in April what's the use of our wasting another year Mrs Manson mingot screwed up her little mouth into a Grimace of mimic prudery and twinkled him through malicious Lids ask mamama I suppose the usual story ah these mingot all alike born in a rut and you can't root him out of it when I built this house you'd have thought I was moving to California nobody ever had built above 40th Street no says I nor above the battery either before Christopher Columbus discovered America no no not one of them wants to be different they're as scared of it as the small poox ah My Dear Mr Archer I thank my stars I'm nothing but a vulgar Spicer but there's not one of my own children that takes after me but my little Ellen she broke off still twinkling at him and asked with the Casual irrelevance of old age now why in the world didn't you marry my little Ellen Archer laughed for one thing she wasn't there to be married no to be sure Mo's the pity and now it's too late her life is finished she spoke with the coldblooded complacency of the Aged throwing Earth into the grave of young hopes the young man's heart grew chill and he said hurriedly can't I persuade you to use your influence with the Wellens Mrs mingot I wasn't made for long engagements old Catherine beamed on him approvingly no I can see that you've got a quick eye when you were a little boy I've no doubt you like to be helped first she threw back her head head with a laugh that made her chins Ripple like little waves ah here's my Ellen now she exclaimed as the portiera parted behind her Madame Alena came forward with a smile her face looked Vivid and happy and she held out her hand gay to Archer while she stooped to her grandmother's kiss I was just saying to him my dear now why didn't you marry my little Ellen Madame Alena looked at Archer still smiling sming and what did he answer oh my darling I leave you to find that out he's been down to Florida to see his sweetheart yes I know she still looked at him I went to see your mother to ask where you'd gone I sent a note that you never answered and I was afraid you were ill he muttered something about leaving unexpectedly in a great hurry and having intended to write to her from St Augustine and of course once you were there you never thought of me again she continued to beam on him with a gayety that might have been a studied Assumption of indifference if she still needs me she's determined not to let me see it he thought stung by her manner he wanted to thank her for having been to see his mother but under the ancestor's malicious eye he felt himself tongue tied and constrained look at him in such hot haste to get married that he took French leave and rushed down to implore the silly girl on his knees that's something like a lover that's the way handsome Bob Spicer carried off my poor mother and then got tired of her before I was weaned though they only had to wait eight months for me but there you're not a spicey young man luckily for you and for May it's only My Poor Ellen that has kept any of their wicked blood the rest of them are all model Mings cried the old lady scornfully Archer was aware that Madame olena who had seated herself at her grandmother's side was still thoughtfully scrutinizing him the gayety had faded from her eyes and she said with great gentleness surely granny we can persuade them between us to do as he wishes Archer Rose to go and as his hand met Madame olenus he felt that she was waiting for him to make some illusion to her unanswered letter when can I see you he asked as she walked with him to the door of the room whenever you like but it must be soon if you want to see the little house again I am moving next week a Pang shot through him at the memory of his lamp lit hours in the low studded drawing room few as they had been they were thick with memories tomorrow evening she nodded tomorrow yes but early I'm going out the next day was a Sunday and if she were going out on a Sunday evening it could of course be only to Mrs lemel str's he felt a slight movement of annoyance not so much at her going there for he rather liked her going where she pleased in spite of the Vander liens but because it was the kind of house at which she was sure to meet bord where she must have known beforehand that she would meet him and where she was probably going for that purpose very well tomorrow evening he repeated inwardly resolved that he would not go early and that by reaching her door late he would either prevent her from going to Mrs str's or else arrive after she had started which all things considered would no doubt be the simplest solution it was only half 8 after all when he rang the bell under the Wisteria not as late as he had intended by half an hour but a singular restlessness had driven him to her door he reflected however that Mrs str's Sunday evenings were not like a ball and that her guests as if to minimize their delinquency usually went early the one thing he had not counted on in entering Madame Alena's Hall was to find hats and overcoats there why had she bidden him to come early if she was having people to dine on a closer inspection of the garments besides which Nastasia was laying his own his resentment gave way to curiosity the overcoats were in fact the very strangest he had ever seen under a polite roof and it took but a glance to assure himself that neither of them belonged to Julius bfor one was a Shaggy yellow Ulster of reach me down cut the other a very old and Rusty cloak with a cape something like what the French called a McFarland this garment which appeared to be made for a person of prodigious size had evidently seen long and hard wear and its greenish black folds gave out a moist sawdusty smell suggestive of prolonged sessions against barroom walls on it lay a ragged gray scarf and an odd felt hat of semi clerical shape ARA raised his eyebrows inquiringly at Nastasia who raised hers in return with a fatalistic jeer as she threw open the drawing room door the young man saw at once that his Hostess was not in the room then with surprise he discovered another lady standing by the fire this lady who was long lean and loosely put together was clad in rayment intricately looped and fringed with plaids and stripes and bands of plain color disposed in a design to which the clue seemed missing her hair which had tried to turn white and only succeeded in fading was surmounted by a Spanish comb and black lace scarf and silk mittens visibly darned covered her Rheumatic hands beside her in a cloud of cigar smoke stood the owners of the two overcoats both in morning clothes that they had evidently not taken off since morning in one of the two Archer to his surprise recognized Ned wiet the other and older who was unknown to him and whose gigantic frame declared him to be the wearer of the mafarin had a feebly leonine head with crumpled gray hair and moved his arms with large pouring gestures as though he were Distributing lay blessings to a kneeling multitude these three persons stood together on the Hearth rug their eyes eyes fixed on an extraordinarily large bouquet of crimson roses with a knot of purple pansies at their base that lay on the sofa where Madame Alena usually sat what they must have cost at this season though of course it's the sentiment one cares about the lady was saying in a sighing staccato as Archer came in the three turned with surprise at his appearance and the lady advancing held out her hand Dear Mr Archer almost my cousin newand she said I am the Martian Manson Archer bowed and she continued my Ellen has taken me in for a few days I came from Cuba where I have been spending the winter with Spanish friends such delightful distinguished people the highest nobility of old Castile how I wish you could know them but I was called Away by our dear great friend here Dr Carver you don't know Dr agathon Carver founder of the Valley of Love community Dr Carver inclined his leonine head and the maress continued ah New York New York how little the life of the spirit has reached it but I see you do know Mr winet oh yes I reached him sometime ago but not by that route wiet said with his dry smile the maress shook her head reprovingly how do you know Mr winet the spirit bloweth where it listeth list oh list interjected Dr Carver in a stentorian murmur but do sit down Mr Archer we four have been having a delightful little dinner together and my child has gone up to dress she expects you she will be down in a moment we were just admiring these marvelous flowers which will surprise her when she reappears wisit remained on his feet I'm afraid I must be off please tell Madame Alena that we shall all will feel lost when she abandons our street this house has been an oasis ah but she won't abandon you poetry and art are the Breath of Life to her it is poetry you write Mr winet well no but I sometimes read it said winet including the group in a general nod and slipping out of the room a costic spirit on page but so witty Dr Carver you do think him witty I never think of wit said Dr Carver severely ah ah you never think of wit how merciless he is to us weak Mortals Mr Archer but he lives only in the life of the spirit and tonight he is mentally preparing the lecture he is to deliver presently at Mrs blankers Dr Carver would there be time before you start for the blinkers to explain to Mr Archer your Illuminating discovery of the direct contact but no I see it is nearly 9:00 and we have no right to detain you while so many are waiting for your message Dr Carver looked slightly disappointed at this conclusion but having compared his ponderous gold time piece with Madame olenska's little traveling clock he reluctantly gathered up his mighty limbs for departure I shall see you later dear friend he suggested to the maress who replied with a smile as soon as Ellen's Carriage comes I will join you I do hope the lecture won't have begun Dr Carver looked thoughtfully at Archer perhaps if this young gentleman is interested in my experiences Mrs blanker might allow you to bring him with you oh dear friend if it were possible I am sure she would be too happy but I fear my Ellen counts on Mr Archer herself that said Dr Carver is unfortunate but here is my card he handed it to Archer who read on it in Gothic characters Dr Carver bowed himself out and Mrs Manson with a sigh that might have been either of regret or relief again waved Archer to a seat Ellen will be down in a moment and before she comes I am so glad of this quiet moment with you Archer murmured his pleasure at their meeting and the maress continued in her low sighing accents I know everything Dear Mr Archer my child has told me all you have done for her your wise advice your courageous firmness thank heaven it was not too late the young man listened with considerable embarrassment was there anyone he wondered to whom Madame Alena had not proclaimed his intervention in her Private Affairs Madame Alena exaggerates I simply gave her a legal opinion as she asked me to ah but in doing it in doing it you were the uncons instrument of of what word have we modern for Providence Mr Archer cried the lady tilting her head on one side and drooping her Lids mysteriously little did you know that at that very moment I was being appealed to being approached in fact from the other side of the Atlantic she glanced over her shoulder as though fearful of being overheard and then drawing her chair nearer and raising a tiny Ivory Fant her lips breathed behind it by the count himself my poor mad foolish olinsky who asks only to take her back on her own terms good God Archer exclaimed springing up you are horrified yes of course I understand I don't defend poor Stanislas though he has always called me his best friend he does not defend himself he casts himself at her feet in my person she tapped her emaciated bosom I have have his letter here a letter has Madame Alena seen it Archer stammered his brain whirling with the shock of the announcement the maress Manson shook her head softly time time I must have time I know my Ellen hay intractable shall I say just a shade unforgiving but good Heavens to forgive is one thing to go back into that hell ah yes the maress acquiesced so she describes it my sensitive child but on the material side Mr Archer if one may stoop to consider such things do you know what she is giving up those Roses there on the sofa Acres like them underglass and in the open in his matchless Terrace Gardens at nce Jewels historic pearls the Sobieski emeralds Sables but she cares nothing for all these art and Beauty those she does care for she lives for as I always have and those also surrounded her pictures priceless furniture music brilliant conversation oh that my dear young man if you'll excuse me is what you've no conception of here and she had it all and the homage of the greatest she tells me she is not thought handsome in New York good Heavens her portrait has been painted nine times the greatest artists in Europe have begged for the privilege are these things nothing and the remorse of an adoring husband as the maress Manson Rose to her climax her face assumed an expression of ecstatic retrospection which would have moved Archer's mirth had he not been numb with amazement he would have laughed if anyone had foretold to him that his first sight of poor madora Manson would have been in the guise of a messenger of Satan but he was in no mood for laughing now and she seemed to him to come straight out of the hell from which Ellen O lensa had just escaped she knows nothing yet of all this he asked abruptly Mrs Manson laid a purple finger on her lips nothing directly but does she suspect who can tell the truth is Mr Archer I have been waiting to see you from the moment I heard of the firm stand you had taken and of your influence over her I hoped it might be possible to count on your support to convince you that she ought to go back I would rather see her dead cried the young man violently ah the maress murmured without visible resentment for a while she sat in her armchair opening and shutting the Absurd Ivory fan between her mittened fingers but suddenly she lifted her head and listened here she comes she said in a rapid whisper and then pointing to the bouquet on the sofa am I to understand that you prefer that Mr Archer after all marriage is marriage F new and my niece is still a wife 18 what are you two plotting together Aunt madora Madame Alena cried as she came into the room she was dressed as if for a ball everything about her shimmered and glimmered softly as if her dress had been woven out of candle beams and she carried her head high like a pretty woman challenging a room full of Rivals we were saying my dear that here was something beautiful to surprise you with Mrs Manson rejoined rising to her feet and pointing archly to the flowers Madame Alena stopped short and looked at the bouquet her color did not change but a sort of white Radiance of anger ran over her like summer lightning ah she exclaimed in a shrill voice that the young man had never heard who is ridiculous enough to send me a bouquet why why a bouquet and why tonight of all nights I am not going to a ball I am not a girl engaged to be married but some people are always ridiculous she turned back to the door opened it and called out nostagia the ubiquitous handmaiden promptly appeared and Archer heard Madame Alena say in an Italian that she seemed to pronounce with intentional deliberateness in order that he might might follow it here throw this into the dust bin and then as Nastasia stared protestingly but no it's not the fault of the poor flowers tell the boy to carry them to the house three doors away the house of Mr windset the dark gentleman who dined here his wife is ill they may give her pleasure the boy is out you say then my dear one run yourself here put my cloak over you and fly I want the thing out of the house immediately and as you live don't say they come from me she flung her velvet Opera cloak over the maid's shoulders and turned back into the drawing room shutting the door sharply her bosom was Rising High under its lace and for a moment Archer thought she was about to cry but she burst into a laugh instead and looking from the Marti uness to Archer asked abruptly and you too have you met made friends it's for Mr Archer to say darling he has waited patiently while you were dressing yes I gave you time enough my hair wouldn't go Madame Alena said raising her hand to the heaped up curls of her shinol but that reminds me I see Dr Carver is gone and you'll be late at the blinkers Mr Archer will you put my aunt in the carriage she followed the Martian into the Hall Hall saw her fitted into a miscellaneous heap of overshoes Shaws and Tippets and called from the doorstep mind the carriage is to be back for me at 10 then she returned to the drawing room where Archer on re-entering it found her standing by the mantlepiece examining herself in the mirror it was not usual in New York Society for a lady to address her parlade as my dear one and sent her out on an errand wrapped in her own Opera cloak and Archer through all his deeper feelings tasted the pleasurable excitement of being in a world where action followed On Emotion with such Olympian speed Madame molena did not move when he came up behind her and for a second their eyes met in the mirror then she turned threw herself into her sofa corner and sighed out there's time for a cigarette he handed her the box and lit a spill for her and as the flame flashed up into her face she glanced at him with laughing eyes and said what do you think of me in a temper Archer paused a moment then he answered with sudden resolution it makes me understand what your aunt has been saying about you I knew she'd been talking about me well she said you were used to all kinds of things splendors and Amusements and excitements that we could never hope to give you here Madame Alena smiled faintly into the circle of smoke about her lips madora is incorrigibly romantic it has made up to her for so many things Archer hesitated again and again took his risk is your aunt's Romanticism always consistent with accuracy you mean does she speak the truth her niece considered well I'll tell you in almost everything she says there's something true and something untrue but why do you ask what has she been telling you he looked away Into the Fire and then back at her shining presence his heart tightened with the thought that this was their last evening by that Fireside and that in a moment the carriage would come to carry her away she says she pretends that coun Alinsky has asked her to persuade you to go back to him Madame Alena made no answer she sat motionless holding her cigar in her half lifted hand the expression of her face had not changed and Archer remembered that he had before noticed her apparent incapacity for surprise you knew then he broke out she was silent for so long that the ash dropped from her cigarette she brushed it to the floor she has hinted about a letter poor darling madora hints is it at your husband's request that she has arrived here suddenly Madame Alena seemed to consider this question also there again one can't tell she told me she had had a spiritual summons whatever that is from Dr Carver I'm afraid she's going to marry Dr Carvin poor madora there's always someone she wants to marry but perhaps the people in Cuba just got tired of her I think she was with them as a sort of paid companion really I don't know why she came but you do believe she has a letter from your husband again Madame Alena brooded silently then she said after all it was to be expected the young man Rose and went to lean against the fireplace a sudden restlessness possessed him and he was Tongue Tied by the sense that their minutes were numbered and that at any moment he might hear the wheels of the returning Carriage you know that your aunt believes you will go back Madame olena raised her head quickly a deep blush Rose to her face and spread over her neck and shoulders she blushed seldom and painfully as if it hurt her like a burn many cruel things have been believed of me she said Oh Ellen forgive me I'm a fool and a brute she smiled a little you are horribly nervous you have your own troubles I know you think the Wellens are unreasonable about your marriage and of course I agree with you in Europe people don't understand our long American engagements I suppose they are not as calm as we are she pronounced the we with a faint emphasis that gave it an ironic sound Archer felt the irony but did not dare to take it up after all she had perhaps purposely deflected the conversation from her own Affairs and after the pain his last words had evidently caused her he felt that all he could do was to follow her lead but the sense of the waning hour made him desperate he could not bear the thought that a barrier of words should drop between them again yes he said abruptly I went South to ask May to marry me after Easter there's no reason why we shouldn't be married then and may adores you and yet you couldn't convince her I thought her too intelligent to be the slave of such absurd superstitions she is too intelligent she's not their slave Madame molena looked at him well then I don't understand Archer rened and hurried on with a rush we had a Frank talk almost the first she thinks my impatience a bad sign merciful Heavens a bad sign she thinks it means that I can't trust myself to go on caring for her she thinks in short I want to marry her at once to get away from someone that I care for more Madame Alena examined this curiously but if she thinks that why isn't she in a hurry too because she's not like that she's so much nobler she insists all the more on the Long Engagement to give me time time to give her up for The Other Woman if I want to Madame Alena leaned towards the fire and gazed into it with fixed eyes down the quiet street Archer heard the approaching Trot of her horses that is Noble she she said with a slight break in her voice yes but it's ridiculous ridiculous because you don't care for anyone else because I don't mean to marry anyone else ah there was another long interval at length she looked up at him and asked this other woman does she love you oh there's no other woman I mean the person that may was thinking of is was never then why after all are you in such haste there's your Carriage said Archer she half Rose and looked about her with absent eyes her fan and gloves lay on the sofa beside her and she picked them up mechanically yes I suppose I must be going you're going to Mrs struther is yes she smiled and added I must go where I am invited or I should be too lonely why not come with me Archer felt that at any cost he must keep her beside him must make her give him the rest of her evening ignoring her question he continued to lean against the chimney piece his eyes fixed on the hand in which she held her gloves and fan as if watching to see if he had the power to make her drop them may guessed the truth he said there is another woman but not the one she thinks elen lensa made no answer and did not move after a moment he sat down beside her and taking her hand softly unclasped it so that the gloves and fan fell on the sofa between them she started up and freeing herself from him moved away to the other side of the Hearth a don't make love to me too many people have done that she said frowning Archer changing color stood up also it was the bitterest rebuke she could have given him I have never made love to you he said and I never shall but you are the woman I would have married if it had been possible for either of us possible for either of us she looked at him with unfeigned astonishment and you say that when it's you who've made it impossible he stared at her groping in a Blackness through which a single Arrow of Light tore its blinding way I've made it impossible you you you she cried her lip trembling like a child's on the verge of tears isn't it you who made me give up divorcing give it up because you showed me how selfish and wicked it was how one must sacrifice oneself to preserve the Dignity of marriage and to spare one's family the publicity the Scandal and because my family was going to be your family for May's sake and for yours I did what you told me what you proved to me that I ought to do ah she broke out with a sudden laugh I've made no secret of having done it for you she sank down on the sofa again crouching among the festive ripples of her dress like a stricken masquerader and the young man stood by the fireplace and continued to gaze at her without moving good God he groaned when I thought you thought oh don't ask me what I thought still looking at her he saw the same burning flush creep up her neck to her face she sat upright facing him with a rigid dignity I do ask you well then there were things in that letter you asked me to read my husband's letter yes I had nothing to fear from that letter absolutely nothing all I feared was to bring notoriety Scandal on the family on you and may good God he groaned again bowing his face in his hands the silence that followed lay on them with the weight of things final and irrevocable it seemed to Archer to be crushing him down like his own gravestone in all the wide future he saw nothing that would ever lift that load from his heart he did not move from his place or rais his head from his hands his hidden eyeballs went on staring into utter Darkness at least I loved you he brought out on the other side of the Heth from the sofa corner where he supposed that she's still cck Ed he heard a faint stifled crying like a child's he started up and came to her side Ellen what Madness why are you crying nothing's done that can't be undone I'm still free and you're going to be he had her in his arms her face like a wet flower at his lips and all their vain Terrors shriveling up like ghosts at Sunrise the one thing that astonished him now was that he should have stood for 5 minutes arguing with her across the width of the room when just touching her made everything so simple she gave him back all his kiss but after a moment he felt her stiffening in his arms and she put him aside and stood up ah my poor newand I suppose this had to be but it doesn't in the least alter Things She Said looking down at him in her turn from The Hearth it Alters the whole of life for me no no it mustn't it can't you're engaged to maywand and I'm married he stood up too flushed and resid salute nonsense it's too late for that sort of thing we've no right to lie to other people or to ourselves we won't talk of your marriage but do you see me marrying May after this she stood silent resting her thin elbows on the mantle piece her profile reflected in the glass behind her one of the locks of her Shino had become loosened and hung on her neck she looked Haggard and almost old I don't see you she said at length putting that question to may do you he gave a reckless shrug it's too late to do anything else you say that because it's the easiest thing to say at this moment not because it's true in reality it's too late to do anything but what we'd both decided on ah I don't understand you she forced a pitiful smile that pinched her face instead of smoothing it you don't understand because you haven't yet guessed how you've changed things for me oh from the first long before I knew all you'd done all I'd done yes I was perfectly unconscious at first that people here were shy of me that they thought I was a dreadful sort of person it seems they had even refused to meet me at dinner I found that out afterward and how you'd made your mother go with you to the Vander liens and how you'd insisted on announcing your engagement at the B foot ball so that I might have have two families to stand by me instead of one at that he broke into a laugh just imagine she said how stupid and unobservant I was I knew nothing of all this till granny blurted it out one day New York simply meant Peace and Freedom to me it was coming home and I was so happy at being among my own people that everyone I met seemed kind and good and glad to see me but from the very beginning she continued I felt there was no one as kind as you no one who gave me reasons that I understood for doing what at first seemed so hard and unnecessary the very good people didn't convince me I felt they'd never been tempted but you knew you understood you had felt the world outside tugging at one with all its golden hands and yet you hated the things it asks of one you hated happiness bought by dis loyalty and cruelty and indifference that was what I'd never known before and it's better than anything I've known she spoke in a low even Voice without tears or visible agitation and each word as it dropped from her fell into his breast like burning lead he sat bowed over his head between his hands staring at the hearth rug and at the tip of the satin shoe that showed under her dress suddenly he knelt down and kissed the shoe she bent over him laying her hands on his shoulders and looking at him with eyes so deep that he remained motionless under her gaze a don't let us undo what you've done she cried I can't go back now to that other way of thinking I can't love you unless I give you up his arms were yearning up to her but she Drew away and they remained facing each other divided by the distance that her words had created then abruptly his anger overflowed and bowo is he to replace me as the words sprang out he was prepared for an answering flare of anger and he would have welcomed it as fuel for his own but Madame olena only grew a shade paler and stood with her arms hanging down before her and her head slightly bent as her way was when she pondered a question he's waiting for you now at Mrs Struthers why don't you go to him H Archer sneered she turned to ring the bell I shall not go out this evening tell the carriage to go and fetch the Senora maressa she said when the maid came after the door had closed again Archer continued to look at her with bitter eyes why this sacrifice since you tell me that you're lonely I have no right to keep you from your friends she smiled a little under her wet lashes I Shan be lonely now I was lonely I was afraid but the emptiness and the Darkness are gone when I turn back into myself myself now I'm like a child going at night into a room where there's always a light her tone and her look still enveloped her in a soft inaccessibility and Archer groaned out again I don't understand you yet you understand may he rened under the retort but kept his eyes on her May is ready to give me up what 3 days after you've intreated her on your knees to hasten your marriage she's refused that gives me the right ah you've taught me what an ugly word that is she said he turned away with a sense of utter weariness he felt as though he had been struggling for hours up the face of a steep precipice and now just as he had fought his way to the top his hold had given way and he was pitching down headlong Into Darkness if he could have got her in his arms again he might have Swept Away away her arguments but she still held him at a distance by something inscrutably aloof in her look and attitude and by his own AED sense of her sincerity at length he began to plead again if we do this now it will be worse afterward worse for everyone no no no she almost screamed as if he frightened her at that moment the Bell sent a long tinkle through the house they had heard no Carriage stopping at the door and they stood Motionless looking at each other with startled eyes outside nastasia's step crossed the hall the outer door opened and a moment later she came in carrying a telegram which she handed to the Countess olena the lady was very happy at the flowers Nastasia said smoothing her apron she thought it was her Senor marito who had sent them and she cried a little and said it was a Folly her mistress smiled and took the yellow envelope she tore it open and carried it to the lamp then when the door had closed again she handed the telegram to Archer it was dated from St Augustine and address to the Countess olena in it he read Granny's telegram successful Papa and mam agree marriage after Easter I'm telegraphing Newland I'm too happy for words and love you dearly your grateful May half an hour later when Archer unlocked his own front door he found a similar envelope on the hall table on top of his pile of notes and letters the message inside the envelope was also from May Welland and ran as follows parents consent wedding Tuesday after Easter at 12 Grace Church 8 bridesmaids please see Rector so happy love may Archer crumpled up the yellow sheet as if the gesture could annihilate the news it contained then he pulled out a small pocket diary and turned over the pages with trembling fingers but he did not find what he wanted and cramming the telegram into his pocket he mounted the stairs a light was shining through the door of the little hall room which served Janie as a dressing room and budoir and her brother wrapped impatiently on the panel the door opened and his sister stood before him in her immemorial purple flannel dressing gown with her hair on pins her face looked pale and apprehensive Newland I hope there's no bad news in that telegram I waited on purpose in case no item of his correspondence was safe from Janie he took no notice of her question look here what day is Easter this year she looked shocked at such unchristian ignorance Easter Newland why of course the first week in April why the first week he turned again to the pages of his diary calculating rapidly under his breath the first week did you say he threw back his head with a long laugh for Mercy's sake what's the matter nothing's the matter except that I'm going to be married in a month Janie fell upon his neck and pressed him to her purple flannel breast oh Newland how wonderful I'm so glad but dearest why do you keep on laughing do hush or you'll wake mamama for [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music]