Scene

Description and Quotes

1

At the Theatre in the evening. 

[Newland Archer enters the box. Steps to the front, joining the company of several men, including Larry Lefferts and Sillerton Jackson. Larry looks at stage through pearl opera glasses. Then he swings his opera glasses away from the stage and toward another box. He sees the figure of a woman entering a box across the way.  Although the woman, silhouetted against candles, is still indistinct and mysterious to us, he recognizes her and reacts with controlled surprise]

LEFFERTS

        Well.

JACKSON

        I didn't think the Mingotts would have tried it on.

LEFFERTS

        Parading her at the opera like that.  Sitting her next to May Welland.  It's all very

        odd.

JACKSON

        Well, she's had such an odd life.

LEFFERTS

        Will they even bring her to the Beauforts' ball, do you suppose?

JACKSON

        If they do, the talk will be little else.

[Archer looks at his companions in the box with just a suggestion of impatience.  Then he turns and leaves]

[Archer goes to the box where May Welland is]

ARCHER

        May.  Mrs. Welland.  Good evening.

MRS. WELLAND

        Newland.  You know my niece Countess Olenska.

[Archer bows with the suggestion of reserve.  Countess Olenska replies with a nod.

Newland sits beside May and speaks softly]

ARCHER

        I hope you've told Madame Olenska.

MAY

        (teasing)

        What?

ARCHER

        That we're engaged.  I want everybody to know.  Let me announce it this evening at

        the ball.

MAY

        If you can persuade Mamma.  But why should we change what is already settled?

[Archer has no answer for this that is appropriate for this time and place.  May senses

his frustration and adds, smiling...]

MAY

        But you can tell my cousin yourself.  She remembers you.

ELLEN (Countess Olenska)

        I remember we played together.  Being here again makes me remember so much.

[She gestures out across the theatre]

ELLEN

        I see everybody the same way, dressed in knickerbockers and pantalettes.

[Archers sits beside her]

ELLEN

        You were horrid.  You kissed me once behind a door.  But it was your cousin Vandy, the one who never looked at me, I was in love with.

ARCHER

        Yes, you have been away a very long time.

ELLEN

        Oh, centuries and centuries.  So long I'm sure I'm dead and buried, and this dear old place is heaven.

[As they end, the voice of the narrator fades up]

[In another box, Mrs. Julius Beaufort (Regina) draws up her opera cloak about her

shoulders.  As she does this and leaves the box, we hear...]

NARRATOR

        It invariably happened, as everything happened in those days, in the same way.  As usual, Mrs. Julius Beaufort appeared just before the Jewel Song and, again as usual, rose at the end of the third act and disappeared.  New York then knew that, a  half-hour later, her annual opera ball would begin.

[Street outside the theatre (

of the Academy of Music.  Mrs. Beaufort climbs in a carriage at the front of the line and drives away]

2

Ballroom at the Beaufort House

NARRATOR

The Beauforts' house was one of the few in New York that possessed a ballroom. Such a room, shuttered in darkness three hundred and sixty-four days of the year, was felt to compensate for whatever was regrettable in the Beaufort past.  Regina Beaufort came from an old South Carolina family, but her husband Julius, who passed for an Englishman, was known to have dissipated habits, a bitter tongue and        mysterious antecedents. His marriage assured him a social position, but not       necessarily respect.

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But only by actually passing through the crimson drawing room could one see "Return of Spring," the much-discussed nude by Bougeureau, which Beaufort had had the audacity to hang in plain sight. Archer was definitely afraid that the family might be going too far and would bring the Countess Olenska. He was more than ever

determined to "see the thing through," but he felt less chivalrously inclined to        defend the Countess after their brief talk at the opera.

[Ballroom at the Beaufort House during the ball.  An orchestra plays and dancers swoop by. Archer enters and hands his cape and hat to a servant, greets another guest and accepts several pair of dancing gloves. ]

[May Welland is surrounded by gleeful friends who are obviously reacting to her engagement announcement.  Archer and May are in another room behind a tall screen of ferns and camellias.  Archer kisses May's hand]

MAY

        You see, I told all my friends.  Just as you asked.

ARCHER

        Yes, I couldn't wait.  Only wish it hadn't had to be at a ball.

MAY

        Yes, I know.  But after all, even here we're alone together aren't we?

ARCHER

        Always.  The worst of it is...

[He takes a quick look around the room: no one's nearby]

ARCHER

        ...that I want to kiss you and I can't.

[He does it anyways which pleasure and surprises May.  They walk to a sofa, which affords

a bit of privacy, and sit]

MAY

        Did you tell Ellen, as I asked you?

ARCHER

        No.  I didn't have the chance after all.

MAY

        She's my cousin, if others know before she does...It's just that she's been away for

        so long that she's rather sensitive.

ARCHER

        Of course I'll tell her, dearest.  But I haven't seen her yet.

MAY

        She decided not to come at the last minute.

ARCHER

        At the last minute?

MAY

        She was afraid her dress wasn't smart enough.  We all thought it was so lovely, but

        she asked my aunt to take her home.

ARCHER

        Oh well.

3

In a sitting room

[In a sitting room the next day.  Mrs. Manson Mingott is admiring a large thick sapphire set in invisible claws]

[She reaches out for May's hand]

MRS. MINGOTT

        Her hand is tempered.  It's these modern sports that spread the joints.  But the

        skin is white.

        (staring straight at Archer)

        And when's the wedding to be?

MRS. WELLAND

        (a little flustered)

        Oh...

ARCHER

        (jumping in)

        As soon as ever it can.  If only you'll back me up, Mrs. Mingott.

MRS. WELLAND

        (recovering)

        We must give them time to know each other a little better, mamma.

MRS. MINGOTT

        Know each other?  Everybody in New York has always known everybody.  Don't wait till the bubble's off the wine.  Marry them before Lent.  I may catch pneumonia any winter now, and I want to give the wedding breakfast.

NARRATOR

        Mrs. Manson Mingott was, of course, the first to receive the required betrothal visit. Much of New York was already related to her, and she knew the remainder by marriage or by reputation.  Though brownstone was the norm, she lived magisterially within a large house of controversial pale cream-colored stone, in an inaccessible  wilderness near the Central Park.

NARRATOR

        The burden of her flesh had long since made it impossible for her to go up and down stairs.  So with characteristic independence she had established herself on the ground floor of her house.  From her sitting room, there was an unexpected vista of her bedroom.

NARRATOR

        Her visitors were startled and fascinated by the foreignness of this arrangement, which recalled scenes in French fiction.  This was how women with lovers lived in the wicked old societies.  But if Mrs. Mingott had wanted a lover, the intrepid woman would have had him too.

NARRATOR

        But she was content, at this moment in her life, simply to sit in a window of her sitting room, waiting calmly for life and fashion to flow northward to her solitary

doors, for her patience was equalled by her confidence.

[Archer, May and Mrs. Welland are saying their goodbyes as they get ready to leave.  Ellen Olenska and Julius Beaufort enter as they leave]

MRS. MINGOTT

        Beaufort!  This is a rare favor.

BEAUFORT

        Unnecessarily rare, I'd say.  But I met Countess Ellen in

MRS. MINGOTT

        This house will be merrier now that she's here.  Push up that tuffet.  I want a good gossip.

[Ellen looks at Archer with a questioning smile]

ARCHER

        (laughing shyly)

        Of course you already know.  About May and me.  She scolded me for not telling you at the opera.

ELLEN

        Of course I know.  And I'm so glad.  One doesn't tell such news first in a crowd.

[Ellen hols her hand out to Archer]

ELLEN

        Good-bye.  Come and see me some day.

[Outside the Mingott House.  Archer follows May and her mother into their waiting

carriage]

MRS. WELLAND

        It's a mistake for Ellen to be seen parading up

[The carriage pulls away from the curb]

4

Dining Room at the Archer House in the evening

[Dining Room at the Archer House in the evening.  Archer is having dinner with his mother Adeline, sister Janey and Sillerton Jackson]

NARRATOR

        Mrs. Archer and her daughter Janey were both shy women and shrank from society.  But

        they liked to be well informed of its doings.

JACKSON

        (in the midst of holding forth)

        Certain nuances escape Beaufort.

MRS. ARCHER

        Oh, necessarily.  Beaufort is a vulgar man.

ARCHER

        Nevertheless, no business nuances escape him.  Most of New York trusts him with its affairs.

MRS. ARCHER

        My grandfather Newland always used to say to mother, "Don't let that fellow Beaufort be introduced to girls."  But at least he's had the advantage of associating with gentlemen.  Even in England, they say.  It's all very mysterious.

NARRATOR

        As far back as anyone could remember, New York had been divided into two great clans.  Among the Mingotts you could dine on canvasback duck, terrapin and vintage wines. At the Archers, you could talk about Alpine scenery and "The Marble Faun" but receive tepid Veuve Cliquot without a year and warmed-up croquettes from Philadelphia.

JANEY

        And the Countess Olenska...was she at the ball too?

MRS. ARCHER

        I appreciate the Mingotts wanting to support her, and have her at the opera.  I admire their esprit de corps.  But why my son's engagement should be mixed up with that woman's comings and goings I don't see.

JACKSON

        Well, in any case, she was not at the ball.

MRS. ARCHER

        At least she had that decency.

[Jackson glances at the portraits of the Archer family antecedents on the wall, and fixes on one of a well-fed, slightly flush older man.  He looks over at Archer, who is watching him with bemused understanding]

JACKSON

        (can't resist)

        Ah, how your grandfather appreciated a good meal, Newland.

JANEY

        I wonder if she wears a round hat or a bonnet in the afternoon.  The dress she wore to the opera was so plain and flat...

MRS. ARCHER

        Yes, I'm sure it was in better taste not to go to the ball.

ARCHER

        I don't think it was a question of taste, mother.  May said the countess decided her dress wasn't smart enough.

MRS. ARCHER

        Poor Ellen.  We must always remember what an eccentric bringing-up Medora Manson gave her.  What can you expect of a girl who was allowed to wear black satin at her coming-out ball?

JANEY

        It's odd she should have kept such an ugly name as Ellen when she married the Count. I should have changed it to Elaine.

ARCHER

        Why?

JANEY

        I don't know.  It sounds more...Polish.

MRS. ARCHER

        It certainly sounds more conspicuous.  And that can hardly be what she wishes.

ARCHER

        (argumentative)

        Why not?  Why shouldn't she be conspicuous if she chooses?  She made an awful marriage, but should she hide her head as if it were her fault?  Should she go slinking around as if she'd disgraced herself?  She's had an unhappy life, but that   doesn't make her an outcast.