Easy English ↔ Source English
Chapter 19
Source paragraphs anchor each row. Semantically matched easy-English paragraphs stay grouped beside the source they rewrite.
Easy-English paragraphs are matched to the source by meaning; numbering follows the source text.
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01
Easy English
The day was fresh, with a spring wind full of dust. The old ladies wore faded dark furs and white furs yellowed with age.
A sharp storage smell rose from the front pews, the long wooden church seats. It came from powder used to protect stored furs. It almost covered the faint spring smell of lilies. These tall white flowers stood high around the altar, the church's holy table.
Source English
The day was fresh, with a lively spring wind full of dust. All the old ladies in both families had got out their faded sables and yellowing ermines, and the smell of camphor from the front pews almost smothered the faint spring scent of the lilies banking the altar.
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02
Easy English
At a signal, Archer left the small side room. He stood before the altar in Grace Church, beside his best man. This friend helped the bridegroom, the man being married.
Source English
Newland Archer, at a signal from the sexton, had come out of the vestry and placed himself with his best man on the chancel step of Grace Church.
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03
Easy English
The signal meant May's brougham was in sight. But no bride, or woman being married, came straight in. She and her father would stop for changes and advice. There the bridesmaids already floated like Easter flowers.
Custom put the bridegroom on show during this wait. He stood before all the guests to prove his eagerness. Archer accepted this ancient-looking New York wedding rite.
Everything before him seemed equally easy, or equally painful. He obeyed his worried best man. Years earlier, Archer had guided other bridegrooms through this same winding path.
Source English
The signal meant that the brougham bearing the bride and her father was in sight; but there was sure to be a considerable interval of adjustment and consultation in the lobby, where the bridesmaids were already hovering like a cluster of Easter blossoms. During this unavoidable lapse of time the bridegroom, in proof of his eagerness, was expected to expose himself alone to the gaze of the assembled company; and Archer had gone through this formality as resignedly as through all the others which made of a nineteenth century New York wedding a rite that seemed to belong to the dawn of history. Everything was equally easy--or equally painful, as one chose to put it--in the path he was committed to tread, and he had obeyed the flurried injunctions of his best man as piously as other bridegrooms had obeyed his own, in the days when he had guided them through the same labyrinth.
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04
Easy English
So far, he met every duty. Eight bouquets of white flowers and lilies-of-the-valley went to the bridesmaids. The eight ushers, who seated guests, received gold sleeve-buttons with deep blue stones. The best man received a cat's-eye pin.
Archer spent half the night thanking friends and former loves for gifts. He tried to give each note different words.
The best man held money for the Bishop, a chief church minister, and the Rector. Archer's bags and travelling clothes waited at Mrs. Mingott's, where breakfast would follow.
A private train room waited for the couple. It would carry them to an unknown place. No one could know their wedding-night stop. Hiding it was a sacred, ancient rule.
Source English
So far he was reasonably sure of having fulfilled all his obligations. The bridesmaids' eight bouquets of white lilac and lilies-of-the-valley had been sent in due time, as well as the gold and sapphire sleeve-links of the eight ushers and the best man's cat's-eye scarf-pin; Archer had sat up half the night trying to vary the wording of his thanks for the last batch of presents from men friends and ex-lady-loves; the fees for the Bishop and the Rector were safely in the pocket of his best man; his own luggage was already at Mrs. Manson Mingott's, where the wedding-breakfast was to take place, and so were the travelling clothes into which he was to change; and a private compartment had been engaged in the train that was to carry the young couple to their unknown destination--concealment of the spot in which the bridal night was to be spent being one of the most sacred taboos of the prehistoric ritual.
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05
Easy English
"Got the ring all right?" whispered young van der Luyden Newland. His new duty as best man frightened him.
Source English
"Got the ring all right?" whispered young van der Luyden Newland, who was inexperienced in the duties of a best man, and awed by the weight of his responsibility.
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06
Easy English
Archer made the usual bridegroom's movement. His bare right hand felt inside his dark grey waistcoat. The gold ring was there. Inside were the words: Newland to May, April _, 187_._
He faced the church door, holding his tall hat and pearl-grey gloves with black thread.
Source English
Archer made the gesture which he had seen so many bridegrooms make: with his ungloved right hand he felt in the pocket of his dark grey waistcoat, and assured himself that the little gold circlet (engraved inside: Newland to May, April ——, 187—) was in its place; then, resuming his former attitude, his tall hat and pearl-grey gloves with black stitchings grasped in his left hand, he stood looking at the door of the church.
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07
Easy English
Handel's March rolled under the false-stone roof. Its waves carried faded memories of many weddings. Archer once watched other brides float toward other bridegrooms from this step.
Source English
Overhead, Handel's March swelled pompously through the imitation stone vaulting, carrying on its waves the faded drift of the many weddings at which, with cheerful indifference, he had stood on the same chancel step watching other brides float up the nave toward other bridegrooms.
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08
Easy English
"How like a first night at the Opera!" he thought. The same faces sat in the same boxes. No, the same pews.
At the world's end, would Mrs. Selfridge Merry still wear those tall feathers? Would Mrs. Beaufort keep her diamonds and smile? Did the next world already hold good seats for them?
Source English
"How like a first night at the Opera!" he thought, recognising all the same faces in the same boxes (no, pews), and wondering if, when the Last Trump sounded, Mrs. Selfridge Merry would be there with the same towering ostrich feathers in her bonnet, and Mrs. Beaufort with the same diamond earrings and the same smile--and whether suitable proscenium seats were already prepared for them in another world.
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09
Easy English
He studied the front rows. Curiosity sharpened the women's faces. The men looked cross about wearing formal coats before lunch. Soon they must fight through the crowd for breakfast food.
Source English
After that there was still time to review, one by one, the familiar countenances in the first rows; the women's sharp with curiosity and excitement, the men's sulky with the obligation of having to put on their frock-coats before luncheon, and fight for food at the wedding-breakfast.
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10
Easy English
Archer imagined Reggie Chivers saying, "Too bad breakfast is at old Catherine's. Lovell's cook will prepare it, so it should be good."
He imagined Sillerton Jackson adding, "My dear fellow, haven't you heard? They will use small tables, in the new English fashion."
Source English
"Too bad the breakfast is at old Catherine's," the bridegroom could fancy Reggie Chivers saying. "But I'm told that Lovell Mingott insisted on its being cooked by his own chef, so it ought to be good if one can only get at it." And he could imagine Sillerton Jackson adding with authority: "My dear fellow, haven't you heard? It's to be served at small tables, in the new English fashion."
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11
Easy English
His mother sat on the left, crying under her Chantilly lace veil. Mr. Henry van der Luyden brought her in. Her hands rested in her grandmother's white fur muff.
Source English
Archer's eyes lingered a moment on the left-hand pew, where his mother, who had entered the church on Mr. Henry van der Luyden's arm, sat weeping softly under her Chantilly veil, her hands in her grandmother's ermine muff.
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12
Easy English
"Poor Janey!" he thought. Even by turning around, she saw only the plain Newlands and Dagonets in front.
Source English
"Poor Janey!" he thought, looking at his sister, "even by screwing her head around she can see only the people in the few front pews; and they're mostly dowdy Newlands and Dagonets."
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13
Easy English
A white band marked the family seats. Tall, red-faced Beaufort studied the women proudly. His wife wore shining grey fur and purple flowers. Across the band, Lawrence Lefferts guarded "Good Form," the unseen god of the rite.
Source English
On the hither side of the white ribbon dividing off the seats reserved for the families he saw Beaufort, tall and redfaced, scrutinising the women with his arrogant stare. Beside him sat his wife, all silvery chinchilla and violets; and on the far side of the ribbon, Lawrence Lefferts's sleekly brushed head seemed to mount guard over the invisible deity of "Good Form" who presided at the ceremony.
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14
Easy English
How many faults would Lefferts find? Archer too once thought such questions important.
His old concerns now seemed like children playing at life. They resembled ancient scholars fighting over words no one understood.
Before the wedding, adults fought over showing the gifts. Archer could not believe such a small matter upset them.
Mrs. Welland ended it with angry tears. "I would as soon turn newspaper reporters loose in my house." The gifts stayed hidden.
Archer once fought over such questions too. Every custom of his tribe, his small closed group, had seemed important to the whole world.
Source English
Archer wondered how many flaws Lefferts's keen eyes would discover in the ritual of his divinity; then he suddenly recalled that he too had once thought such questions important. The things that had filled his days seemed now like a nursery parody of life, or like the wrangles of mediaeval schoolmen over metaphysical terms that nobody had ever understood. A stormy discussion as to whether the wedding presents should be "shown" had darkened the last hours before the wedding; and it seemed inconceivable to Archer that grown-up people should work themselves into a state of agitation over such trifles, and that the matter should have been decided (in the negative) by Mrs. Welland's saying, with indignant tears: "I should as soon turn the reporters loose in my house." Yet there was a time when Archer had had definite and rather aggressive opinions on all such problems, and when everything concerning the manners and customs of his little tribe had seemed to him fraught with world-wide significance.
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15
Easy English
"And all the while, I suppose," he thought, "real people were living somewhere, and real things were happening to them ..."
Source English
"And all the while, I suppose," he thought, "real people were living somewhere, and real things happening to them ..."
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16
Easy English
"There they come!" the best man whispered excitedly. But the bridegroom knew better.
Source English
"There they come!" breathed the best man excitedly; but the bridegroom knew better.
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17
Easy English
The church door opened carefully. Mr. Brown, the horse keeper, was studying the scene before ordering his forces. Today he also served as church helper, dressed in black.
The door closed softly again. Then, after another wait, it swung open in a grand way. A low sound of voices ran through the church: "The family!"
Source English
The cautious opening of the door of the church meant only that Mr. Brown the livery-stable keeper (gowned in black in his intermittent character of sexton) was taking a preliminary survey of the scene before marshalling his forces. The door was softly shut again; then after another interval it swung majestically open, and a murmur ran through the church: "The family!"
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18
Easy English
Mrs. Welland came first, on her eldest son's arm. Her large pink face was serious. People approved her purple-red satin, pale blue panels, and blue feathers.
She settled into the pew opposite Mrs. Archer's with a slow, grand sound of satin. Before she sat, every watcher stretched to see who followed.
The day before, wild stories ran through the town. Old Mrs. Manson Mingott, people said, meant to be present at the wedding, in spite of her failing body. The plan was so like her bold, sporting spirit that bets ran high at the clubs. Could she walk up the church and squeeze herself into a seat?
It was known that she sent her own workman to the church. He was told to see if the end panel of the front pew could come out. He measured the space between the seat and the front. But the answer gave no hope.
For one anxious day, her family watched her play with another plan. She might be rolled up the middle of the church in her enormous wheeled chair. There she would sit, like a queen in state, at the foot of the altar steps.
Source English
Mrs. Welland came first, on the arm of her eldest son. Her large pink face was appropriately solemn, and her plum-coloured satin with pale blue side-panels, and blue ostrich plumes in a small satin bonnet, met with general approval; but before she had settled herself with a stately rustle in the pew opposite Mrs. Archer's the spectators were craning their necks to see who was coming after her. Wild rumours had been abroad the day before to the effect that Mrs. Manson Mingott, in spite of her physical disabilities, had resolved on being present at the ceremony; and the idea was so much in keeping with her sporting character that bets ran high at the clubs as to her being able to walk up the nave and squeeze into a seat. It was known that she had insisted on sending her own carpenter to look into the possibility of taking down the end panel of the front pew, and to measure the space between the seat and the front; but the result had been discouraging, and for one anxious day her family had watched her dallying with the plan of being wheeled up the nave in her enormous Bath chair and sitting enthroned in it at the foot of the chancel.
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19
Easy English
Her family hated this public show. Then someone found the chair was too wide for the covered path outside. The cloth cover ran from church to street. Her family would gladly have covered that person with gold.
Only taking down the cover would solve this. Outside, dressmakers and reporters fought to see the bride. Even old Catherine would not face them, though she considered it.
Mrs. Welland heard the plan. "They might photograph my child and put it in the papers!" The whole tribe drew back in shame.
The old mother gave in, but demanded the wedding breakfast under her roof. Washington Square cousins complained. The Wellands lived nearby, but now Brown would charge for the distant drive.
Source English
The idea of this monstrous exposure of her person was so painful to her relations that they could have covered with gold the ingenious person who suddenly discovered that the chair was too wide to pass between the iron uprights of the awning which extended from the church door to the curbstone. The idea of doing away with this awning, and revealing the bride to the mob of dressmakers and newspaper reporters who stood outside fighting to get near the joints of the canvas, exceeded even old Catherine's courage, though for a moment she had weighed the possibility. "Why, they might take a photograph of my child and put it in the papers!" Mrs. Welland exclaimed when her mother's last plan was hinted to her; and from this unthinkable indecency the clan recoiled with a collective shudder. The ancestress had had to give in; but her concession was bought only by the promise that the wedding-breakfast should take place under her roof, though (as the Washington Square connection said) with the Wellands' house in easy reach it was hard to have to make a special price with Brown to drive one to the other end of nowhere.
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20
Easy English
The Jacksons spread every detail. Some still expected old Catherine. When her daughter-in-law appeared instead, the crowd's excitement cooled like the air.
Mrs. Lovell Mingott's new dress made her face red and her eyes glassy. Still, people approved her black Chantilly lace over pale purple satin. Her purple flowers contrasted well with Mrs. Welland's colors.
Far different was the lady who followed on Mr. Mingott's arm. She was thin and bony, and she stepped along in small, dancing steps. She came in a wild storm of stripes and hanging threads and floating scarves. As this last strange figure floated into view, Archer's heart tightened and stopped beating.
Source English
Though all these transactions had been widely reported by the Jacksons a sporting minority still clung to the belief that old Catherine would appear in church, and there was a distinct lowering of the temperature when she was found to have been replaced by her daughter-in-law. Mrs. Lovell Mingott had the high colour and glassy stare induced in ladies of her age and habit by the effort of getting into a new dress; but once the disappointment occasioned by her mother-in-law's non-appearance had subsided, it was agreed that her black Chantilly over lilac satin, with a bonnet of Parma violets, formed the happiest contrast to Mrs. Welland's blue and plum-colour. Far different was the impression produced by the gaunt and mincing lady who followed on Mr. Mingott's arm, in a wild dishevelment of stripes and fringes and floating scarves; and as this last apparition glided into view Archer's heart contracted and stopped beating.
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21
Easy English
He thought the Marchioness was still in Washington with Madame Olenska. They went there four weeks earlier.
Ellen wanted her aunt away from Dr. Carver's dangerous talk. He nearly drew Medora into the Valley of Love. No one expected either woman at the wedding.
Archer stared at Medora and searched behind her. But the line ended. The other family members were already seated.
The eight tall ushers were already slipping through the side doors into the entrance hall. They drew together as they went, like birds or insects preparing some great seasonal flight.
Source English
He had taken it for granted that the Marchioness Manson was still in Washington, where she had gone some four weeks previously with her niece, Madame Olenska. It was generally understood that their abrupt departure was due to Madame Olenska's desire to remove her aunt from the baleful eloquence of Dr. Agathon Carver, who had nearly succeeded in enlisting her as a recruit for the Valley of Love; and in the circumstances no one had expected either of the ladies to return for the wedding. For a moment Archer stood with his eyes fixed on Medora's fantastic figure, straining to see who came behind her; but the little procession was at an end, for all the lesser members of the family had taken their seats, and the eight tall ushers, gathering themselves together like birds or insects preparing for some migratory manœuvre, were already slipping through the side doors into the lobby.
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22
Easy English
"Newland, I say, she's here!" the best man whispered.
Source English
"Newland--I say: she's here!" the best man whispered.
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23
Easy English
Archer woke with a start. His heart seemed to have stopped for a long time. The pink and white bridesmaids were already halfway up the church. White sleeves made the Bishop's two helpers look winged. Spohr's first notes fell before May like flowers.
Archer opened his eyes. But were they really shut before, as he imagined? He felt his heart take up its usual work again.
Source English
Archer roused himself with a start.
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24
Easy English
Music and lilies filled the church. May's cloud of white cloth and orange flowers came nearer. Mrs. Archer cried with joy. The Rector spoke his blessing. Pink bridesmaids and black ushers moved in order.
Source English
A long time had apparently passed since his heart had stopped beating, for the white and rosy procession was in fact half way up the nave, the Bishop, the Rector and two white-winged assistants were hovering about the flower-banked altar, and the first chords of the Spohr symphony were strewing their flower-like notes before the bride.
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25
Easy English
Every one of these sights and sounds was familiar. Yet in his new relation to them, they were strange past all words, and empty of meaning. They ran together in a mist inside his brain.
Source English
Archer opened his eyes (but could they really have been shut, as he imagined?), and felt his heart beginning to resume its usual task. The music, the scent of the lilies on the altar, the vision of the cloud of tulle and orange-blossoms floating nearer and nearer, the sight of Mrs. Archer's face suddenly convulsed with happy sobs, the low benedictory murmur of the Rector's voice, the ordered evolutions of the eight pink bridesmaids and the eight black ushers: all these sights, sounds and sensations, so familiar in themselves, so unutterably strange and meaningless in his new relation to them, were confusedly mingled in his brain.
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26
Easy English
"My God," he thought, "have I got the ring?" And once more he made the bridegroom's sudden, shaking movement of the hand.
Source English
"My God," he thought, "have I got the ring?"--and once more he went through the bridegroom's convulsive gesture.
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27
Easy English
Then, in a moment, May was beside him. Such light streamed from her that a little of its warmth reached him through his frozen feeling. He straightened himself and smiled into her eyes.
Source English
Then, in a moment, May was beside him, such radiance streaming from her that it sent a faint warmth through his numbness, and he straightened himself and smiled into her eyes.
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28
Easy English
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here ..." the Rector began.
Source English
"Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here," the Rector began ...
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29
Easy English
The ring reached her hand, and the Bishop blessed them. The bridesmaids formed their line. The organ, the church's great music instrument, began Mendelssohn's March. No New York couple left church without it.
Source English
The ring was on her hand, the Bishop's benediction had been given, the bridesmaids were a-poise to resume their place in the procession, and the organ was showing preliminary symptoms of breaking out into the Mendelssohn March, without which no newly-wedded couple had ever emerged upon New York.
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30
Easy English
"Your arm, give her your arm!" young Newland whispered. Archer returned from far away. Perhaps a dark coil of hair among the strangers sent him there.
The hat turned, showing an unknown woman with a long nose. She looked nothing like Ellen. Was Archer starting to see things that were not there?
Source English
"Your arm--I say, give her your arm!" young Newland nervously hissed; and once more Archer became aware of having been adrift far off in the unknown. What was it that had sent him there, he wondered? Perhaps the glimpse, among the anonymous spectators in the transept, of a dark coil of hair under a hat which, a moment later, revealed itself as belonging to an unknown lady with a long nose, so laughably unlike the person whose image she had evoked that he asked himself if he were becoming subject to hallucinations.
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31
Easy English
Now he and his wife walked slowly down the middle of the church. The light waves of the Mendelssohn March carried them forward. The spring day called to them through the wide open doors.
At the far end of the cloth tunnel, Mrs. Welland's tall red-brown horses danced and showed themselves off. Each horse wore a big white cloth flower on its head-band, in honour of the wedding.
Source English
And now he and his wife were pacing slowly down the nave, carried forward on the light Mendelssohn ripples, the spring day beckoning to them through widely opened doors, and Mrs. Welland's chestnuts, with big white favours on their frontlets, curvetting and showing off at the far end of the canvas tunnel.
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32
Easy English
The footman wore a still bigger white cloth flower on his coat. He wrapped May's white cloak about her, and Archer jumped into the brougham at her side. She turned to him with a smile full of victory, and their hands found each other under her veil.
Source English
The footman, who had a still bigger white favour on his lapel, wrapped May's white cloak about her, and Archer jumped into the brougham at her side. She turned to him with a triumphant smile and their hands clasped under her veil.
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33
Easy English
"Darling!" Archer said. The same black abyss, a bottomless hole, opened before him. He sank deeper while his voice ran on cheerfully.
"Yes, of course I thought I'd lost the ring," the voice was saying. "No wedding would be complete without that. The poor devil of a bridegroom must always go through it. But you did keep me waiting, you know! I had time to think of every terrible thing that might happen."
Source English
"Darling!" Archer said--and suddenly the same black abyss yawned before him and he felt himself sinking into it, deeper and deeper, while his voice rambled on smoothly and cheerfully: "Yes, of course I thought I'd lost the ring; no wedding would be complete if the poor devil of a bridegroom didn't go through that. But you did keep me waiting, you know! I had time to think of every horror that might possibly happen."
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34
Easy English
She surprised him on Fifth Avenue. Before everyone, she threw her arms around his neck. "But nothing can happen now, can it, Newland, while we are together?"
Source English
She surprised him by turning, in full Fifth Avenue, and flinging her arms about his neck. "But none ever can__ happen now, can it, Newland, as long as we two are together?"
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35
Easy English
Every detail was planned. After breakfast, they changed clothes and came down the Mingott stairs. Laughing bridesmaids and crying parents threw rice and satin shoes over their brougham.
They reached the station early and bought papers like old travellers. May's maid put her grey cloak and shining new London bag in their private train room.
Source English
Every detail of the day had been so carefully thought out that the young couple, after the wedding-breakfast, had ample time to put on their travelling-clothes, descend the wide Mingott stairs between laughing bridesmaids and weeping parents, and get into the brougham under the traditional shower of rice and satin slippers; and there was still half an hour left in which to drive to the station, buy the last weeklies at the bookstall with the air of seasoned travellers, and settle themselves in the reserved compartment in which May's maid had already placed her dove-coloured travelling cloak and glaringly new dressing-bag from London.
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36
Easy English
The old du Lac aunts offered their Rhinebeck house. This let them visit Mrs. Archer in New York for a week. Archer gladly avoided a hotel "bridal suite," rooms for newly married couples.
Source English
The old du Lac aunts at Rhinebeck had put their house at the disposal of the bridal couple, with a readiness inspired by the prospect of spending a week in New York with Mrs. Archer; and Archer, glad to escape the usual "bridal suite" in a Philadelphia or Baltimore hotel, had accepted with an equal alacrity.
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37
Easy English
May loved the country plan. The bridesmaids failed to discover their hiding place, and their vain efforts amused her.
To have a country house lent to one was thought "very English." The fact gave a last fine touch to what everyone called the most brilliant wedding of the year.
Only their parents knew the house. When asked, they said, "Ah, they didn't tell us..." This was true because they already knew.
Source English
May was enchanted at the idea of going to the country, and childishly amused at the vain efforts of the eight bridesmaids to discover where their mysterious retreat was situated. It was thought "very English" to have a country-house lent to one, and the fact gave a last touch of distinction to what was generally conceded to be the most brilliant wedding of the year; but where the house was no one was permitted to know, except the parents of bride and groom, who, when taxed with the knowledge, pursed their lips and said mysteriously: "Ah, they didn't tell us--" which was manifestly true, since there was no need to.
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38
Easy English
The train passed the city's endless wooden houses and entered the pale spring country. Talk came more easily than Archer expected.
May remained yesterday's simple girl. She discussed the wedding as calmly as a bridesmaid with an usher.
Archer thought her calm hid fear. Her clear eyes showed only peaceful unawareness. She trusted him completely. Her husband still seemed yesterday's charming friend.
She liked and trusted no one more. Their delightful adventure now reached its height. She travelled alone with him, finally a grown "married woman."
Source English
Once they were settled in their compartment, and the train, shaking off the endless wooden suburbs, had pushed out into the pale landscape of spring, talk became easier than Archer had expected. May was still, in look and tone, the simple girl of yesterday, eager to compare notes with him as to the incidents of the wedding, and discussing them as impartially as a bridesmaid talking it all over with an usher. At first Archer had fancied that this detachment was the disguise of an inward tremor; but her clear eyes revealed only the most tranquil unawareness. She was alone for the first time with her husband; but her husband was only the charming comrade of yesterday. There was no one whom she liked as much, no one whom she trusted as completely, and the culminating "lark" of the whole delightful adventure of engagement and marriage was to be off with him alone on a journey, like a grownup person, like a "married woman," in fact.
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39
Easy English
Her deep feeling lived beside no imagination. He saw both in the Mission garden. Once her conscience felt free, she became a simple girl again.
Source English
It was wonderful that--as he had learned in the Mission garden at St. Augustine--such depths of feeling could coexist with such absence of imagination. But he remembered how, even then, she had surprised him by dropping back to inexpressive girlishness as soon as her conscience had been eased of its burden; and he saw that she would probably go through life dealing to the best of her ability with each experience as it came, but never anticipating any by so much as a stolen glance.
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40
Easy English
She would meet each event honestly and fully. But she would never look ahead.
Perhaps unawareness made her eyes clear and her face less personal. She resembled Civic Virtue, public goodness in stone, or a Greek goddess.
Blood showed under her fair skin. It seemed not like fire, but a liquid keeping her forever fresh.
Her lasting youth seemed neither hard nor dull. She looked primitive and pure, untouched and simple.
Archer suddenly saw her like a stranger. He escaped into memories of breakfast. Granny Mingott ruled the feast from her great chair, huge and victorious.
Source English
Perhaps that faculty of unawareness was what gave her eyes their transparency, and her face the look of representing a type rather than a person; as if she might have been chosen to pose for a Civic Virtue or a Greek goddess. The blood that ran so close to her fair skin might have been a preserving fluid rather than a ravaging element; yet her look of indestructible youthfulness made her seem neither hard nor dull, but only primitive and pure. In the thick of this meditation Archer suddenly felt himself looking at her with the startled gaze of a stranger, and plunged into a reminiscence of the wedding-breakfast and of Granny Mingott's immense and triumphant pervasion of it.
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41
Easy English
May enjoyed the subject. "Weren't you surprised aunt Medora came? Ellen wrote that both were ill. I wish Ellen got well instead! Did you see her beautiful old lace?"
Source English
May settled down to frank enjoyment of the subject. "I was surprised, though--weren't you?--that aunt Medora came after all. Ellen wrote that they were neither of them well enough to take the journey; I do wish it had been she who had recovered! Did you see the exquisite old lace she sent me?"
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42
Easy English
He knew this moment must come, but hoped his will could hold it off.
Source English
He had known that the moment must come sooner or later, but he had somewhat imagined that by force of willing he might hold it at bay.
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43
Easy English
"Yes, I, no. Yes, it was beautiful," he said blindly. Would his careful world fall like a house of cards each time he heard "Ellen"?
Source English
"Yes--I--no: yes, it was beautiful," he said, looking at her blindly, and wondering if, whenever he heard those two syllables, all his carefully built-up world would tumble about him like a house of cards.
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44
Easy English
"Aren't you tired? Tea will be good when we arrive. The aunts will have everything ready," he said, taking her hand.
Her mind rushed to the Beauforts' grand Baltimore silver. It "went" perfectly with uncle Lovell Mingott's dishes.
Source English
"Aren't you tired? It will be good to have some tea when we arrive--I'm sure the aunts have got everything beautifully ready," he rattled on, taking her hand in his; and her mind rushed away instantly to the magnificent tea and coffee service of Baltimore silver which the Beauforts had sent, and which "went" so perfectly with uncle Lovell Mingott's trays and side-dishes.
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45
Easy English
At spring twilight, the train stopped at Rhinebeck. They walked to the waiting carriage.
Source English
In the spring twilight the train stopped at the Rhinebeck station, and they walked along the platform to the waiting carriage.
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46
Easy English
"How kind! The van der Luydens sent their man from Skuytercliff," Archer cried. A serious servant without uniform took their bags.
Source English
"Ah, how awfully kind of the van der Luydens--they've sent their man over from Skuytercliff to meet us," Archer exclaimed, as a sedate person out of livery approached them and relieved the maid of her bags.
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47
Easy English
"I'm sorry, sir," the man said. "The Miss du Lacs' water tank leaked yesterday. Mr. van der Luyden heard today and sent a housemaid to prepare the Patroon's house."
"It will be comfortable, sir. The Miss du Lacs sent their cook, so it will be just like Rhinebeck."
Source English
"I'm extremely sorry, sir," said this emissary, "that a little accident has occurred at the Miss du Lacs': a leak in the water-tank. It happened yesterday, and Mr. van der Luyden, who heard of it this morning, sent a housemaid up by the early train to get the Patroon's house ready. It will be quite comfortable, I think you'll find, sir; and the Miss du Lacs have sent their cook over, so that it will be exactly the same as if you'd been at Rhinebeck."
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48
Easy English
Archer stared blankly. The man repeated with deeper apology, "It will be exactly the same, sir. I promise."
May covered the silence. "The Patroon's house? It will be a hundred thousand times better! How kind of Mr. van der Luyden!"
Source English
Archer stared at the speaker so blankly that he repeated in still more apologetic accents: "It'll be exactly the same, sir, I do assure you--" and May's eager voice broke out, covering the embarrassed silence: "The same as Rhinebeck? The Patroon's house? But it will be a hundred thousand times better--won't it, Newland? It's too dear and kind of Mr. van der Luyden to have thought of it."
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49
Easy English
They drove off, with the maid beside the driver and their shining wedding bags on the seat before them. May went on excitedly.
"I've never been inside. Have you? The van der Luydens show so few people. They opened it for Ellen. She called it the only American house where she could be perfectly happy."
Source English
And as they drove off, with the maid beside the coachman, and their shining bridal bags on the seat before them, she went on excitedly: "Only fancy, I've never been inside it--have you? The van der Luydens show it to so few people. But they opened it for Ellen, it seems, and she told me what a darling little place it was: she says it's the only house she's seen in America that she could imagine being perfectly happy in."
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50
Easy English
"That is what we will be, isn't it?" her husband cried. She gave her boyish smile. "Our wonderful luck together is only beginning!"
Source English
"Well--that's what we're going to be, isn't it?" cried her husband gaily; and she answered with her boyish smile: "Ah, it's just our luck beginning--the wonderful luck we're always going to have together!"