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"
In
view
of
your
prospective
alliance
with
the
family
I
should
like
to
consult
you
--
to
consider
the
case
with
you
--
before
taking
any
farther
steps
.
"
Archer
felt
the
blood
in
his
temples
.
He
had
seen
the
Countess
Olenska
only
once
since
his
visit
to
her
,
and
then
at
the
Opera
,
in
the
Mingott
box
.
During
this
interval
she
had
become
a
less
vivid
and
importunate
image
,
receding
from
his
foreground
as
May
Welland
resumed
her
rightful
place
in
it
.
He
had
not
heard
her
divorce
spoken
of
since
Janey
's
first
random
allusion
to
it
,
and
had
dismissed
the
tale
as
unfounded
gossip
.
Theoretically
,
the
idea
of
divorce
was
almost
as
distasteful
to
him
as
to
his
mother
;
and
he
was
annoyed
that
Mr.
Letterblair
(
no
doubt
prompted
by
old
Catherine
Mingott
)
should
be
so
evidently
planning
to
draw
him
into
the
affair
.
After
all
,
there
were
plenty
of
Mingott
men
for
such
jobs
,
and
as
yet
he
was
not
even
a
Mingott
by
marriage.He
waited
for
the
senior
partner
to
continue
.
Mr.
Letterblair
unlocked
a
drawer
and
drew
out
a
packet
.
"
If
you
will
run
your
eye
over
these
papers
--
"
Archer
frowned
.
"
I
beg
your
pardon
,
sir
;
but
just
because
of
the
prospective
relationship
,
I
should
prefer
your
consulting
Mr.
Skipworth
or
Mr.
Redwood
.
"
Mr.
Letterblair
looked
surprised
and
slightly
offended
.
It
was
unusual
for
a
junior
to
reject
such
an
opening.He
bowed
.
"
I
respect
your
scruple
,
sir
;
but
in
this
case
I
believe
true
delicacy
requires
you
to
do
as
I
ask
.
Indeed
,
the
suggestion
is
not
mine
but
Mrs.
Manson
Mingott
's
and
her
son
's
.
I
have
seen
Lovell
Mingott
;
and
also
Mr.
Welland
.
They
all
named
you
.
"
Archer
felt
his
temper
rising
.
He
had
been
somewhat
languidly
drifting
with
events
for
the
last
fortnight
,
and
letting
May
's
fair
looks
and
radiant
nature
obliterate
the
rather
importunate
pressure
of
the
Mingott
claims
.
But
this
behest
of
old
Mrs.
Mingott
's
roused
him
to
a
sense
of
what
the
clan
thought
they
had
the
right
to
exact
from
a
prospective
son-in-law
;
and
he
chafed
at
the
role
.
"
Her
uncles
ought
to
deal
with
this
,
"
he
said
.
"
They
have
.
The
matter
has
been
gone
into
by
the
family
.
They
are
opposed
to
the
Countess
's
idea
;
but
she
is
firm
,
and
insists
on
a
legal
opinion
.
"
The
young
man
was
silent
:
he
had
not
opened
the
packet
in
his
hand
.
"
Does
she
want
to
marry
again
?
"
"
I
believe
it
is
suggested
;
but
she
denies
it
.
"
"
Then
--
"
"
Will
you
oblige
me
,
Mr.
Archer
,
by
first
looking
through
these
papers
?
Afterward
,
when
we
have
talked
the
case
over
,
I
will
give
you
my
opinion
.
"
Archer
withdrew
reluctantly
with
the
unwelcome
documents
.
Since
their
last
meeting
he
had
half-unconsciously
collaborated
with
events
in
ridding
himself
of
the
burden
of
Madame
Olenska
.
His
hour
alone
with
her
by
the
firelight
had
drawn
them
into
a
momentary
intimacy
on
which
the
Duke
of
St.
Austrey
's
intrusion
with
Mrs.
Lemuel
Struthers
,
and
the
Countess
's
joyous
greeting
of
them
,
had
rather
providentially
broken
.
Two
days
later
Archer
had
assisted
at
the
comedy
of
her
reinstatement
in
the
van
der
Luydens
'
favour
,
and
had
said
to
himself
,
with
a
touch
of
tartness
,
that
a
lady
who
knew
how
to
thank
all-powerful
elderly
gentlemen
to
such
good
purpose
for
a
bunch
of
flowers
did
not
need
either
the
private
consolations
or
the
public
championship
of
a
young
man
of
his
small
compass
.
To
look
at
the
matter
in
this
light
simplified
his
own
case
and
surprisingly
furbished
up
all
the
dim
domestic
virtues
.
He
could
not
picture
May
Welland
,
in
whatever
conceivable
emergency
,
hawking
about
her
private
difficulties
and
lavishing
her
confidences
on
strange
men
;
and
she
had
never
seemed
to
him
finer
or
fairer
than
in
the
week
that
followed
.
He
had
even
yielded
to
her
wish
for
a
long
engagement
,
since
she
had
found
the
one
disarming
answer
to
his
plea
for
haste
.
"
You
know
,
when
it
comes
to
the
point
,
your
parents
have
always
let
you
have
your
way
ever
since
you
were
a
little
girl
,
"
he
argued
;
and
she
had
answered
,
with
her
clearest
look
:
"
Yes
;
and
that
's
what
makes
it
so
hard
to
refuse
the
very
last
thing
they
'll
ever
ask
of
me
as
a
little
girl
.
"
That
was
the
old
New
York
note
;
that
was
the
kind
of
answer
he
would
like
always
to
be
sure
of
his
wife
's
making
.
If
one
had
habitually
breathed
the
New
York
air
there
were
times
when
anything
less
crystalline
seemed
stifling.The
papers
he
had
retired
to
read
did
not
tell
him
much
in
fact
;
but
they
plunged
him
into
an
atmosphere
in
which
he
choked
and
spluttered
.
They
consisted
mainly
of
an
exchange
of
letters
between
Count
Olenski
's
solicitors
and
a
French
legal
firm
to
whom
the
Countess
had
applied
for
the
settlement
of
her
financial
situation
.
There
was
also
a
short
letter
from
the
Count
to
his
wife
:
after
reading
it
,
Newland
Archer
rose
,
jammed
the
papers
back
into
their
envelope
,
and
reentered
Mr.
Letterblair
's
office
.
"
Here
are
the
letters
,
sir
.
If
you
wish
,
I
'll
see
Madame
Olenska
,
"
he
said
in
a
constrained
voice
.
"
Thank
you
--
thank
you
,
Mr.
Archer
.
Come
and
dine
with
me
tonight
if
you
're
free
,
and
we
'll
go
into
the
matter
afterward
:
in
case
you
wish
to
call
on
our
client
tomorrow
.
"
Newland
Archer
walked
straight
home
again
that
afternoon
.
It
was
a
winter
evening
of
transparent
clearness
,
with
an
innocent
young
moon
above
the
house-tops
;
and
he
wanted
to
fill
his
soul
's
lungs
with
the
pure
radiance
,
and
not
exchange
a
word
with
any
one
till
he
and
Mr.
Letterblair
were
closeted
together
after
dinner
.
It
was
impossible
to
decide
otherwise
than
he
had
done
:
he
must
see
Madame
Olenska
himself
rather
than
let
her
secrets
be
bared
to
other
eyes
.
A
great
wave
of
compassion
had
swept
away
his
indifference
and
impatience
:
she
stood
before
him
as
an
exposed
and
pitiful
figure
,
to
be
saved
at
all
costs
from
farther
wounding
herself
in
her
mad
plunges
against
fate.He
remembered
what
she
had
told
him
of
Mrs.
Welland
's
request
to
be
spared
whatever
was
"
unpleasant
"
in
her
history
,
and
winced
at
the
thought
that
it
was
perhaps
this
attitude
of
mind
which
kept
the
New
York
air
so
pure
.
"
Are
we
only
Pharisees
after
all
?
"
he
wondered
,
puzzled
by
the
effort
to
reconcile
his
instinctive
disgust
at
human
vileness
with
his
equally
instinctive
pity
for
human
frailty.For
the
first
time
he
perceived
how
elementary
his
own
principles
had
always
been
.
He
passed
for
a
young
man
who
had
not
been
afraid
of
risks
,
and
he
knew
that
his
secret
love-affair
with
poor
silly
Mrs.
Thorley
Rushworth
had
not
been
too
secret
to
invest
him
with
a
becoming
air
of
adventure
.
But
Mrs.
Rushworth
was
"
that
kind
of
woman
"
;
foolish
,
vain
,
clandestine
by
nature
,
and
far
more
attracted
by
the
secrecy
and
peril
of
the
affair
than
by
such
charms
and
qualities
as
he
possessed
.
When
the
fact
dawned
on
him
it
nearly
broke
his
heart
,
but
now
it
seemed
the
redeeming
feature
of
the
case
.
The
affair
,
in
short
,
had
been
of
the
kind
that
most
of
the
young
men
of
his
age
had
been
through
,
and
emerged
from
with
calm
consciences
and
an
undisturbed
belief
in
the
abysmal
distinction
between
the
women
one
loved
and
respected
and
those
one
enjoyed
--
and
pitied
.
In
this
view
they
were
sedulously
abetted
by
their
mothers
,
aunts
and
other
elderly
female
relatives
,
who
all
shared
Mrs.
Archer
's
belief
that
when
"
such
things
happened
"
it
was
undoubtedly
foolish
of
the
man
,
but
somehow
always
criminal
of
the
woman
.
All
the
elderly
ladies
whom
Archer
knew
regarded
any
woman
who
loved
imprudently
as
necessarily
unscrupulous
and
designing
,
and
mere
simple-minded
man
as
powerless
in
her
clutches
.
The
only
thing
to
do
was
to
persuade
him
,
as
early
as
possible
,
to
marry
a
nice
girl
,
and
then
trust
to
her
to
look
after
him
.
In
the
complicated
old
European
communities
,
Archer
began
to
guess
,
love-problems
might
be
less
simple
and
less
easily
classified
.
Rich
and
idle
and
ornamental
societies
must
produce
many
more
such
situations
;
and
there
might
even
be
one
in
which
a
woman
naturally
sensitive
and
aloof
would
yet
,
from
the
force
of
circumstances
,
from
sheer
defencelessness
and
loneliness
,
be
drawn
into
a
tie
inexcusable
by
conventional
standards.On
reaching
home
he
wrote
a
line
to
the
Countess
Olenska
,
asking
at
what
hour
of
the
next
day
she
could
receive
him
,
and
despatched
it
by
a
messenger-boy
,
who
returned
presently
with
a
word
to
the
effect
that
she
was
going
to
Skuytercliff
the
next
morning
to
stay
over
Sunday
with
the
van
der
Luydens
,
but
that
he
would
find
her
alone
that
evening
after
dinner
.
The
note
was
written
on
a
rather
untidy
half-sheet
,
without
date
or
address
,
but
her
hand
was
firm
and
free
.
He
was
amused
at
the
idea
of
her
week-ending
in
the
stately
solitude
of
Skuytercliff
,
but
immediately
afterward
felt
that
there
,
of
all
places
,
she
would
most
feel
the
chill
of
minds
rigorously
averted
from
the
"
unpleasant
.
"
He
was
at
Mr.
Letterblair
's
punctually
at
seven
,
glad
of
the
pretext
for
excusing
himself
soon
after
dinner
.
He
had
formed
his
own
opinion
from
the
papers
entrusted
to
him
,
and
did
not
especially
want
to
go
into
the
matter
with
his
senior
partner
.
Mr.
Letterblair
was
a
widower
,
and
they
dined
alone
,
copiously
and
slowly
,
in
a
dark
shabby
room
hung
with
yellowing
prints
of
"
The
Death
of
Chatham
"
and
"
The
Coronation
of
Napoleon
.
"
On
the
sideboard
,
between
fluted
Sheraton
knife-cases
,
stood
a
decanter
of
Haut
Brion
,
and
another
of
the
old
Lanning
port
(
the
gift
of
a
client
)
,
which
the
wastrel
Tom
Lanning
had
sold
off
a
year
or
two
before
his
mysterious
and
discreditable
death
in
San
Francisco
--
an
incident
less
publicly
humiliating
to
the
family
than
the
sale
of
the
cellar.After
a
velvety
oyster
soup
came
shad
and
cucumbers
,
then
a
young
broiled
turkey
with
corn
fritters
,
followed
by
a
canvas-back
with
currant
jelly
and
a
celery
mayonnaise
.
Mr.
Letterblair
,
who
lunched
on
a
sandwich
and
tea
,
dined
deliberately
and
deeply
,
and
insisted
on
his
guest
's
doing
the
same
.
Finally
,
when
the
closing
rites
had
been
accomplished
,
the
cloth
was
removed
,
cigars
were
lit
,
and
Mr.
Letterblair
,
leaning
back
in
his
chair
and
pushing
the
port
westward
,
said
,
spreading
his
back
agreeably
to
the
coal
fire
behind
him
:
"
The
whole
family
are
against
a
divorce
.
And
I
think
rightly
.
"
Archer
instantly
felt
himself
on
the
other
side
of
the
argument
.
"
But
why
,
sir
?
If
there
ever
was
a
case
--
"
"
Well
--
what
's
the
use
?
SHE
'S
here
--
he
's
there
;
the
Atlantic
's
between
them
.
She
'll
never
get
back
a
dollar
more
of
her
money
than
what
he
's
voluntarily
returned
to
her
:
their
damned
heathen
marriage
settlements
take
precious
good
care
of
that
.
As
things
go
over
there
,
Olenski
's
acted
generously
:
he
might
have
turned
her
out
without
a
penny
.
"
The
young
man
knew
this
and
was
silent
.
"
I
understand
,
though
,
"
Mr.
Letterblair
continued
,
"
that
she
attaches
no
importance
to
the
money
.
Therefore
,
as
the
family
say
,
why
not
let
well
enough
alone
?
"
Archer
had
gone
to
the
house
an
hour
earlier
in
full
agreement
with
Mr.
Letterblair
's
view
;
but
put
into
words
by
this
selfish
,
well-fed
and
supremely
indifferent
old
man
it
suddenly
became
the
Pharisaic
voice
of
a
society
wholly
absorbed
in
barricading
itself
against
the
unpleasant
.
"
I
think
that
's
for
her
to
decide
.
"
"
H
'm
--
have
you
considered
the
consequences
if
she
decides
for
divorce
?
"
"
You
mean
the
threat
in
her
husband
's
letter
?
What
weight
would
that
carry
?
It
's
no
more
than
the
vague
charge
of
an
angry
blackguard
.
"
"
Yes
;
but
it
might
make
some
unpleasant
talk
if
he
really
defends
the
suit
.
"
"
Unpleasant
--
!
"
said
Archer
explosively.Mr
.
Letterblair
looked
at
him
from
under
enquiring
eyebrows
,
and
the
young
man
,
aware
of
the
uselessness
of
trying
to
explain
what
was
in
his
mind
,
bowed
acquiescently
while
his
senior
continued
:
"
Divorce
is
always
unpleasant
.
"
"
You
agree
with
me
?
"
Mr.
Letterblair
resumed
,
after
a
waiting
silence
.
"
Naturally
,
"
said
Archer
.
"
Well
,
then
,
I
may
count
on
you
;
the
Mingotts
may
count
on
you
;
to
use
your
influence
against
the
idea
?
"
Archer
hesitated
.
"
I
ca
n't
pledge
myself
till
I
've
seen
the
Countess
Olenska
,
"
he
said
at
length
.
"
Mr.
Archer
,
I
do
n't
understand
you
.
Do
you
want
to
marry
into
a
family
with
a
scandalous
divorce-suit
hanging
over
it
?
"
"
I
do
n't
think
that
has
anything
to
do
with
the
case
.
"
Mr.
Letterblair
put
down
his
glass
of
port
and
fixed
on
his
young
partner
a
cautious
and
apprehensive
gaze
Archer
understood
that
he
ran
the
risk
of
having
his
mandate
withdrawn
,
and
for
some
obscure
reason
he
disliked
the
prospect
.
Now
that
the
job
had
been
thrust
on
him
he
did
not
propose
to
relinquish
it
;
and
,
to
guard
against
the
possibility
,
he
saw
that
he
must
reassure
the
unimaginative
old
man
who
was
the
legal
conscience
of
the
Mingotts
.
"
You
may
be
sure
,
sir
,
that
I
sha
n't
commit
myself
till
I
've
reported
to
you
;
what
I
meant
was
that
I
'd
rather
not
give
an
opinion
till
I
've
heard
what
Madame
Olenska
has
to
say
.
"
Mr.
Letterblair
nodded
approvingly
at
an
excess
of
caution
worthy
of
the
best
New
York
tradition
,
and
the
young
man
,
glancing
at
his
watch
,
pleaded
an
engagement
and
took
leave
.
Old-fashioned
New
York
dined
at
seven
,
and
the
habit
of
after-dinner
calls
,
though
derided
in
Archer
's
set
,
still
generally
prevailed
.
As
the
young
man
strolled
up
Fifth
Avenue
from
Waverley
Place
,
the
long
thoroughfare
was
deserted
but
for
a
group
of
carriages
standing
before
the
Reggie
Chiverses
'
(
where
there
was
a
dinner
for
the
Duke
)
,
and
the
occasional
figure
of
an
elderly
gentleman
in
heavy
overcoat
and
muffler
ascending
a
brownstone
doorstep
and
disappearing
into
a
gas-lit
hall
.
Thus
,
as
Archer
crossed
Washington
Square
,
he
remarked
that
old
Mr.
du
Lac
was
calling
on
his
cousins
the
Dagonets
,
and
turning
down
the
corner
of
West
Tenth
Street
he
saw
Mr.
Skipworth
,
of
his
own
firm
,
obviously
bound
on
a
visit
to
the
Miss
Lannings
.
A
little
farther
up
Fifth
Avenue
,
Beaufort
appeared
on
his
doorstep
,
darkly
projected
against
a
blaze
of
light
,
descended
to
his
private
brougham
,
and
rolled
away
to
a
mysterious
and
probably
unmentionable
destination
.
It
was
not
an
Opera
night
,
and
no
one
was
giving
a
party
,
so
that
Beaufort
's
outing
was
undoubtedly
of
a
clandestine
nature
.
Archer
connected
it
in
his
mind
with
a
little
house
beyond
Lexington
Avenue
in
which
beribboned
window
curtains
and
flower-boxes
had
recently
appeared
,
and
before
whose
newly
painted
door
the
canary-coloured
brougham
of
Miss
Fanny
Ring
was
frequently
seen
to
wait.Beyond
the
small
and
slippery
pyramid
which
composed
Mrs.
Archer
's
world
lay
the
almost
unmapped
quarter
inhabited
by
artists
,
musicians
and
"
people
who
wrote
.
"
These
scattered
fragments
of
humanity
had
never
shown
any
desire
to
be
amalgamated
with
the
social
structure
.
