Easy English ↔ Source English
Chapter 26
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
Every year, Fifth Avenue woke on October fifteenth. Houses opened their window covers. Servants rolled out the carpets. They hung three heavy curtains at every window.
Source English
Every year on the fifteenth of October Fifth Avenue opened its shutters, unrolled its carpets and hung up its triple layer of window-curtains.
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02
Easy English
By November first, this household act was complete. The social world began to look at itself. By mid-November, the season was busy. The Opera and theaters offered new shows. Dinner plans grew, and people chose dates for dances.
At this time, Mrs. Archer always said one thing. New York had changed very much.
Source English
By the first of November this household ritual was over, and society had begun to look about and take stock of itself. By the fifteenth the season was in full blast, Opera and theatres were putting forth their new attractions, dinner-engagements were accumulating, and dates for dances being fixed. And punctually at about this time Mrs. Archer always said that New York was very much changed.
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03
Easy English
She watched that world but took no part in it. Mr. Sillerton Jackson and Miss Sophy helped her. Together, they found each new crack in its smooth face. They saw strange weeds among its neat rows of plants.
As a young man, Archer enjoyed his mother's yearly view. He waited for her list of small signs. His careless eyes always missed them.
In Mrs. Archer's mind, every change was bad. Miss Sophy Jackson fully agreed.
Source English
Observing it from the lofty stand-point of a non-participant, she was able, with the help of Mr. Sillerton Jackson and Miss Sophy, to trace each new crack in its surface, and all the strange weeds pushing up between the ordered rows of social vegetables. It had been one of the amusements of Archer's youth to wait for this annual pronouncement of his mother's, and to hear her enumerate the minute signs of disintegration that his careless gaze had overlooked. For New York, to Mrs. Archer's mind, never changed without changing for the worse; and in this view Miss Sophy Jackson heartily concurred.
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04
Easy English
Mr. Sillerton Jackson knew more of the world. He held back his judgment. He listened to the ladies with an amused and fair mind. Still, even he agreed that New York changed.
Now Archer was in his second year of marriage. That winter, he also saw it. Perhaps the city had not changed yet. But it was clearly changing.
Source English
Mr. Sillerton Jackson, as became a man of the world, suspended his judgment and listened with an amused impartiality to the lamentations of the ladies. But even he never denied that New York had changed; and Newland Archer, in the winter of the second year of his marriage, was himself obliged to admit that if it had not actually changed it was certainly changing.
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05
Easy English
As usual, the subject came up at Mrs. Archer's Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving was a day for giving thanks. On that day, she sadly counted the year's gifts. Then she wondered what deserved her thanks.
That world did not. She was not sure it still lived. Its state seemed to call for God's anger. Everyone knew that Dr. Ashmore agreed.
He was the new Rector of St. Matthew's. The church chose him because his ideas seemed new. His words were also fresh and bold. For his Thanksgiving talk, he chose a dark part of Jeremiah.
Dr. Ashmore often spoke against the rich social world. He always called its change a "trend." A trend was a broad change in one way.
Mrs. Archer feared this word but also enjoyed it.
She belonged to a group that was moving somewhere. This thought gave the word a strange power.
Source English
These points had been raised, as usual, at Mrs. Archer's Thanksgiving dinner. At the date when she was officially enjoined to give thanks for the blessings of the year it was her habit to take a mournful though not embittered stock of her world, and wonder what there was to be thankful for. At any rate, not the state of society; society, if it could be said to exist, was rather a spectacle on which to call down Biblical imprecations--and in fact, every one knew what the Reverend Dr. Ashmore meant when he chose a text from Jeremiah (chap. ii., verse 25) for his Thanksgiving sermon. Dr. Ashmore, the new Rector of St. Matthew's, had been chosen because he was very "advanced": his sermons were considered bold in thought and novel in language. When he fulminated against fashionable society he always spoke of its "trend"; and to Mrs. Archer it was terrifying and yet fascinating to feel herself part of a community that was trending.
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06
Easy English
"Dr. Ashmore is certainly right," she said. "There is a clear trend."
She spoke as if the trend were a crack in a wall. Anyone might see and measure it.
Source English
"There's no doubt that Dr. Ashmore is right: there is a marked trend," she said, as if it were something visible and measurable, like a crack in a house.
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07
Easy English
"It was odd to speak about it on Thanksgiving," Miss Jackson said.
"Oh, he wants us to give thanks for what remains," Mrs. Archer answered dryly.
Source English
"It was odd, though, to preach about it on Thanksgiving," Miss Jackson opined; and her hostess drily rejoined: "Oh, he means us to give thanks for what's left."
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08
Easy English
In earlier years, Archer smiled at his mother's dark claims. This year, he listened to her list. He had to admit that the trend was real.
Source English
Archer had been wont to smile at these annual vaticinations of his mother's; but this year even he was obliged to acknowledge, as he listened to an enumeration of the changes, that the "trend" was visible.
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09
Easy English
"Look at the wild spending on clothes," Miss Jackson began. "Sillerton took me to the Opera's first night. Jane Merry wore the only dress I knew from last year. Even that had a new front."
"I know she bought it from Worth two years ago," she continued. "My dressmaker fixes her Paris dresses before Jane wears them."
Source English
"The extravagance in dress--" Miss Jackson began. "Sillerton took me to the first night of the Opera, and I can only tell you that Jane Merry's dress was the only one I recognised from last year; and even that had had the front panel changed. Yet I know she got it out from Worth only two years ago, because my seamstress always goes in to make over her Paris dresses before she wears them."
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10
Easy English
"Ah, Jane Merry is one of us," Mrs. Archer said sadly.
Source English
"Ah, Jane Merry is one of us," said Mrs. Archer sighing, as if it were not such an enviable thing to be in an age when ladies were beginning to flaunt abroad their Paris dresses as soon as they were out of the Custom House, instead of letting them mellow under lock and key, in the manner of Mrs. Archer's contemporaries.
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11
Easy English
This group no longer seemed so lucky. Ladies now wore Paris clothes as soon as they came. They did not lock them away first. Mrs. Archer's friends always waited before showing new clothes.
"Yes, Jane is one of the few," Miss Jackson said. "New fashions seemed common and cheap in my youth. Amy Sillerton says Boston people waited two years. They put their Paris dresses away."
Then she told them about old Mrs. Baxter Pennilow. That lady always did things in a grand way. She ordered twelve Paris dresses each year. Two were velvet, a rich cloth with a soft surface.
Two were satin, and two were silk. The other six used poplin or the finest cashmere. Poplin was a strong cloth with fine raised lines. Cashmere was very soft cloth made from goat hair.
The order never changed. Then Mrs. Baxter Pennilow was sick for two years. When she died, her family found forty-eight Worth dresses. No one ever removed them from their thin paper.
Her daughters wore black after her death. Later, they put on the first group of dresses. They wore them to the Symphony music events. Even then, the clothes did not look too new.
Source English
"Yes; she's one of the few. In my youth," Miss Jackson rejoined, "it was considered vulgar to dress in the newest fashions; and Amy Sillerton has always told me that in Boston the rule was to put away one's Paris dresses for two years. Old Mrs. Baxter Pennilow, who did everything handsomely, used to import twelve a year, two velvet, two satin, two silk, and the other six of poplin and the finest cashmere. It was a standing order, and as she was ill for two years before she died they found forty-eight Worth dresses that had never been taken out of tissue paper; and when the girls left off their mourning they were able to wear the first lot at the Symphony concerts without looking in advance of the fashion."
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12
Easy English
"Boston keeps old ways more than New York," Mrs. Archer said. "Still, a lady should hide French dresses for one season. That is always safe."
Source English
"Ah, well, Boston is more conservative than New York; but I always think it's a safe rule for a lady to lay aside her French dresses for one season," Mrs. Archer conceded.
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13
Easy English
"Beaufort started this new fashion," Miss Jackson said. "He made his wife wear new clothes at once. Sometimes Regina needs all her fine manner. Without it, she would look like... like..."
Miss Jackson looked around the table. She saw Janey's wide and eager eyes. So she hid the dangerous ending in a low sound.
Source English
"It was Beaufort who started the new fashion by making his wife clap her new clothes on her back as soon as they arrived: I must say at times it takes all Regina's distinction not to look like ... like ..." Miss Jackson glanced around the table, caught Janey's bulging gaze, and took refuge in an unintelligible murmur.
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14
Easy English
"Like the women who fight for his love," Mr. Sillerton Jackson said.
Source English
"Like her rivals," said Mr. Sillerton Jackson, with the air of producing an epigram.
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15
Easy English
He sounded pleased with his clever answer.
"Oh," the ladies said together.
Mrs. Archer changed the subject for Janey's sake. "Poor Regina! Her Thanksgiving cannot be very happy. Sillerton, have you heard the stories about Beaufort's money deals?"
Source English
"Oh,--" the ladies murmured; and Mrs. Archer added, partly to distract her daughter's attention from forbidden topics: "Poor Regina! Her Thanksgiving hasn't been a very cheerful one, I'm afraid. Have you heard the rumours about Beaufort's speculations, Sillerton?"
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16
Easy English
Mr. Jackson gave a careless nod. Everyone knew those stories. He did not repeat news that was already common.
Source English
Mr. Jackson nodded carelessly. Every one had heard the rumours in question, and he scorned to confirm a tale that was already common property.
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17
Easy English
A dark silence covered the table. No one truly liked Beaufort. They did not mind thinking badly of his private life. But bad business could bring shame on Regina's whole family.
Even Beaufort's enemies could not enjoy that thought. New York accepted false goodness in private love. In business, it demanded perfect honesty. A famous bank had not failed in shame for many years.
Still, everyone remembered the last such failure. Their world shut out the leaders of that business. The same end would come to the Beauforts. His power could not save them. Regina's many Dallas relations could not save her either.
That would happen if the stories were true. Beaufort's money deals might be against the law.
Source English
A gloomy silence fell upon the party. No one really liked Beaufort, and it was not wholly unpleasant to think the worst of his private life; but the idea of his having brought financial dishonour on his wife's family was too shocking to be enjoyed even by his enemies. Archer's New York tolerated hypocrisy in private relations; but in business matters it exacted a limpid and impeccable honesty. It was a long time since any well-known banker had failed discreditably; but every one remembered the social extinction visited on the heads of the firm when the last event of the kind had happened. It would be the same with the Beauforts, in spite of his power and her popularity; not all the leagued strength of the Dallas connection would save poor Regina if there were any truth in the reports of her husband's unlawful speculations.
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18
Easy English
The guests escaped to safer subjects. Yet each new subject supported Mrs. Archer's fear. The trend seemed to move faster and faster.
Source English
The talk took refuge in less ominous topics; but everything they touched on seemed to confirm Mrs. Archer's sense of an accelerated trend.
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19
Easy English
"Of course, Newland, you let dear May attend Mrs. Struthers's Sunday nights," Mrs. Archer began.
May spoke with a bright voice. "Oh, everyone goes there now. Mrs. Struthers even came to Granny's last party."
Source English
"Of course, Newland, I know you let dear May go to Mrs. Struthers's Sunday evenings--" she began; and May interposed gaily: "Oh, you know, everybody goes to Mrs. Struthers's now; and she was invited to Granny's last reception."
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20
Easy English
Archer thought about New York's way of changing. People all agreed to ignore each change. When it was complete, they accepted it. Then they claimed it happened long ago.
Someone always opened the gates of their social fort. Usually that person was a woman. After she gave up the keys, the fort was open. No one could still claim that it was safe.
People enjoyed Mrs. Struthers's easy Sunday welcome. They would not stay home after tasting it. They no longer cared about her family's shoe polish money. Her sparkling wine helped them forget.
Source English
It was thus, Archer reflected, that New York managed its transitions: conspiring to ignore them till they were well over, and then, in all good faith, imagining that they had taken place in a preceding age. There was always a traitor in the citadel; and after he (or generally she) had surrendered the keys, what was the use of pretending that it was impregnable? Once people had tasted of Mrs. Struthers's easy Sunday hospitality they were not likely to sit at home remembering that her champagne was transmuted Shoe-Polish.
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21
Easy English
"I know, dear," Mrs. Archer said. "I suppose such things must happen. People now go out only to enjoy themselves."
"But I never forgave your cousin Madame Olenska," she continued. "She was the first of us to accept Mrs. Struthers."
Source English
"I know, dear, I know," Mrs. Archer sighed. "Such things have to be, I suppose, as long as amusement is what people go out for; but I've never quite forgiven your cousin Madame Olenska for being the first person to countenance Mrs. Struthers."
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22
Easy English
May's face suddenly became red. The change surprised Archer and every guest.
"Oh, Ellen," May said softly.
Her voice held both blame and a wish to excuse. Her parents used the same voice about the Blenkers. The family now used it whenever anyone named Ellen.
Source English
A sudden blush rose to young Mrs. Archer's face; it surprised her husband as much as the other guests about the table. "Oh, Ellen--" she murmured, much in the same accusing and yet deprecating tone in which her parents might have said: "Oh, the Blenkers--."
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23
Easy English
She refused her husband's new offers. Her firm answer surprised and troubled them. On May's lips, the family voice made Archer think. Sometimes she seemed like a stranger when she spoke for her world.
Source English
It was the note which the family had taken to sounding on the mention of the Countess Olenska's name, since she had surprised and inconvenienced them by remaining obdurate to her husband's advances; but on May's lips it gave food for thought, and Archer looked at her with the sense of strangeness that sometimes came over him when she was most in the tone of her environment.
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24
Easy English
Mrs. Archer did not notice the feeling at the table. "People like Countess Olenska knew great European society. They should help us protect our social lines. They should not ignore them."
Source English
His mother, with less than her usual sensitiveness to atmosphere, still insisted: "I've always thought that people like the Countess Olenska, who have lived in aristocratic societies, ought to help us to keep up our social distinctions, instead of ignoring them."
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25
Easy English
May's face stayed bright red. It seemed to mean more than Ellen's social mistakes.
Source English
May's blush remained permanently vivid: it seemed to have a significance beyond that implied by the recognition of Madame Olenska's social bad faith.
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26
Easy English
"Perhaps we all look the same to foreign eyes," Miss Jackson said sharply.
Source English
"I've no doubt we all seem alike to foreigners," said Miss Jackson tartly.
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27
Easy English
"I do not think Ellen cares about society," May said. "But nobody knows what she does care about."
She seemed to search for safe words.
Source English
"I don't think Ellen cares for society; but nobody knows exactly what she does care for," May continued, as if she had been groping for something noncommittal.
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28
Easy English
"Ah, well," Mrs. Archer said again.
Source English
"Ah, well--" Mrs. Archer sighed again.
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29
Easy English
Everyone knew that Ellen lost her family's warm support. Old Mrs. Manson Mingott was once her strongest guard. Even she could not defend Ellen's refusal now. The Mingotts never stated their anger in public.
Family unity was too important to them. Instead, they followed Mrs. Welland's plan. They let poor Ellen find her own social place.
To their shame, she chose the lower world of the Blenkers. Writers and other untidy people met there. They followed their own strange social ways. Ellen had many chances to choose better company.
Still, she became what they called "Bohemian." A Bohemian lived freely among artists and writers. This fact seemed to prove her great mistake. She should have returned to Count Olenski.
A young woman belonged under her husband's roof. That seemed even more true in Ellen's case. People could ask why she first left him. But polite people stopped before saying the answer.
Source English
Everybody knew that the Countess Olenska was no longer in the good graces of her family. Even her devoted champion, old Mrs. Manson Mingott, had been unable to defend her refusal to return to her husband. The Mingotts had not proclaimed their disapproval aloud: their sense of solidarity was too strong. They had simply, as Mrs. Welland said, "let poor Ellen find her own level"--and that, mortifyingly and incomprehensibly, was in the dim depths where the Blenkers prevailed, and "people who wrote" celebrated their untidy rites. It was incredible, but it was a fact, that Ellen, in spite of all her opportunities and her privileges, had become simply "Bohemian." The fact enforced the contention that she had made a fatal mistake in not returning to Count Olenski. After all, a young woman's place was under her husband's roof, especially when she had left it in circumstances that ... well ... if one had cared to look into them ...
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30
Easy English
"Madame Olenska is very popular with gentlemen," Miss Sophy said.
She sounded helpful when she knew her words could hurt.
Source English
"Madame Olenska is a great favourite with the gentlemen," said Miss Sophy, with her air of wishing to put forth something conciliatory when she knew that she was planting a dart.
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31
Easy English
"Ah, a young woman like her always faces that danger," Mrs. Archer said sadly.
The ladies reached their final judgment. Then they gathered their long skirts. They went to the sitting room with its round glass lamps. Archer and Mr. Jackson entered the Gothic library.
Source English
"Ah, that's the danger that a young woman like Madame Olenska is always exposed to," Mrs. Archer mournfully agreed; and the ladies, on this conclusion, gathered up their trains to seek the carcel globes of the drawing-room, while Archer and Mr. Sillerton Jackson withdrew to the Gothic library.
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32
Easy English
The room followed the dark pointed style of old churches. A fire burned behind an iron screen. Mr. Jackson sat before it with a fine cigar. The cigar made up for a poor dinner.
Source English
Once established before the grate, and consoling himself for the inadequacy of the dinner by the perfection of his cigar, Mr. Jackson became portentous and communicable.
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33
Easy English
Now he became serious and ready to share secrets.
"If Beaufort's business falls," he said, "many things will come out."
Source English
"If the Beaufort smash comes," he announced, "there are going to be disclosures."
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34
Easy English
Archer quickly raised his head. Beaufort's name always brought back one picture. He saw the heavy man in rich fur and fine shoes. Beaufort walked through the snow at Skuytercliff.
Source English
Archer raised his head quickly: he could never hear the name without the sharp vision of Beaufort's heavy figure, opulently furred and shod, advancing through the snow at Skuytercliff.
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35
Easy English
"There will be a very ugly cleaning," Mr. Jackson continued. "He did not spend all that money on Regina."
Source English
"There's bound to be," Mr. Jackson continued, "the nastiest kind of a cleaning up. He hasn't spent all his money on Regina."
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36
Easy English
"Everyone already knows about other women," Archer said. "I believe he will escape this trouble."
Archer wanted to change the subject.
Source English
"Oh, well--that's discounted, isn't it? My belief is he'll pull out yet," said the young man, wanting to change the subject.
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37
Easy English
"Perhaps he will," Mr. Jackson answered. "He planned to visit powerful men today. We must hope they can carry him through this time."
"Poor Regina might spend her life in some cheap foreign town," he continued. "People without money go to such places. I would not like that."
Source English
"Perhaps--perhaps. I know he was to see some of the influential people today. Of course," Mr. Jackson reluctantly conceded, "it's to be hoped they can tide him over--this time anyhow. I shouldn't like to think of poor Regina's spending the rest of her life in some shabby foreign watering-place for bankrupts."
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38
Easy English
Archer said nothing. Beaufort gained money in bad ways. A cruel payment for that seemed natural, though sad. Archer gave little thought to Regina's future. His mind returned to a nearer question.
Why did May become red at Ellen's name?
Source English
Archer said nothing. It seemed to him so natural--however tragic--that money ill-gotten should be cruelly expiated, that his mind, hardly lingering over Mrs. Beaufort's doom, wandered back to closer questions. What was the meaning of May's blush when the Countess Olenska had been mentioned?
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39
Easy English
Four months passed since Archer's summer day with Ellen. He did not see her again. She returned to Washington. There she shared a small house with Medora Manson.
Archer wrote to her once. He asked in a few words about their next meeting. Her answer was even shorter.
"Not yet."
Source English
Four months had passed since the midsummer day that he and Madame Olenska had spent together; and since then he had not seen her. He knew that she had returned to Washington, to the little house which she and Medora Manson had taken there: he had written to her once--a few words, asking when they were to meet again--and she had even more briefly replied: "Not yet."
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40
Easy English
Nothing else passed between them. Inside himself, Archer built a secret holy room. Ellen sat at its center among his hidden thoughts. His wish for her also lived there.
Slowly, that room became his real life. He carried each book there in his mind. He brought every key idea and feeling. His views and dreams belonged there too.
Outside it, his daily life felt false and empty. He hit old social ideas like furniture in a dark room. He was not truly present. Sometimes he was shocked that others still thought he was there.
Source English
Since then there had been no farther communication between them, and he had built up within himself a kind of sanctuary in which she throned among his secret thoughts and longings. Little by little it became the scene of his real life, of his only rational activities; thither he brought the books he read, the ideas and feelings which nourished him, his judgments and his visions. Outside it, in the scene of his actual life, he moved with a growing sense of unreality and insufficiency, blundering against familiar prejudices and traditional points of view as an absent-minded man goes on bumping into the furniture of his own room. Absent--that was what he was: so absent from everything most densely real and near to those about him that it sometimes startled him to find they still imagined he was there.
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41
Easy English
Mr. Jackson cleared his throat. He was ready to tell another secret.
Source English
He became aware that Mr. Jackson was clearing his throat preparatory to farther revelations.
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42
Easy English
"I do not know what your wife's family has heard," he said. "People talk about Madame Olenska. They discuss her refusal of her husband's last offer."
Source English
"I don't know, of course, how far your wife's family are aware of what people say about--well, about Madame Olenska's refusal to accept her husband's latest offer."
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43
Easy English
Archer stayed silent.
"It is a pity that she refused," Mr. Jackson continued.
Source English
Archer was silent, and Mr. Jackson obliquely continued: "It's a pity--it's certainly a pity--that she refused it."
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44
Easy English
"A pity? In God's name, why?"
Source English
"A pity? In God's name, why?"
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45
Easy English
Mr. Jackson looked down his own leg. His sock was perfectly smooth. It met a shining evening shoe.
Source English
Mr. Jackson looked down his leg to the unwrinkled sock that joined it to a glossy pump.
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46
Easy English
"Let us take the simplest reason," he said. "What money will she live on now?"
Source English
"Well--to put it on the lowest ground--what's she going to live on now?"
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47
Easy English
"Now?"
Source English
"Now--?"
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48
Easy English
"If Beaufort..."
Source English
"If Beaufort--"
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49
Easy English
Archer jumped up. His fist struck the black wood edge of the writing table. Two brass ink bottles danced in their holders.
Source English
Archer sprang up, his fist banging down on the black walnut-edge of the writing-table. The wells of the brass double-inkstand danced in their sockets.
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50
Easy English
"What the devil do you mean, sir?"
Source English
"What the devil do you mean, sir?"
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51
Easy English
Mr. Jackson moved a little in his chair. His calm eyes met Archer's burning face.
Source English
Mr. Jackson, shifting himself slightly in his chair, turned a tranquil gaze on the young man's burning face.
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52
Easy English
"I heard this from a very good person," he said. "Old Catherine told it herself. Ellen firmly refused to return. Then the family greatly cut the money they gave her."
"Her marriage money also depended on her return," he continued. "Olenski offered to give it back under that condition. She refused, so she lost it. Why do you ask what I mean?"
His voice stayed friendly.
Source English
"Well--I have it on pretty good authority--in fact, on old Catherine's herself--that the family reduced Countess Olenska's allowance considerably when she definitely refused to go back to her husband; and as, by this refusal, she also forfeits the money settled on her when she married--which Olenski was ready to make over to her if she returned--why, what the devil do you mean, my dear boy, by asking me what I mean?" Mr. Jackson good-humouredly retorted.
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53
Easy English
Archer moved to the shelf above the fire. He bent down and knocked his cigar ashes into the grate.
Source English
Archer moved toward the mantelpiece and bent over to knock his ashes into the grate.
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54
Easy English
"I know nothing about Madame Olenska's money," he said. "I do not need to know. Your dark suggestion cannot be true."
Source English
"I don't know anything of Madame Olenska's private affairs; but I don't need to, to be certain that what you insinuate--"
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55
Easy English
"It is not my suggestion," Mr. Jackson said. "Lefferts said it, for one."
Source English
"Oh, I don't: it's Lefferts, for one," Mr. Jackson interposed.
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56
Easy English
"Lefferts tried to make her love him," Archer cried. "She refused him!"
Source English
"Lefferts--who made love to her and got snubbed for it!" Archer broke out contemptuously.
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57
Easy English
"Ah, did she?" Mr. Jackson asked sharply.
He seemed to wait for that very fact. He still sat sideways near the fire. His hard old look held Archer like a steel spring.
Source English
"Ah--did he?" snapped the other, as if this were exactly the fact he had been laying a trap for. He still sat sideways from the fire, so that his hard old gaze held Archer's face as if in a spring of steel.
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58
Easy English
"Well, she should have returned before Beaufort's fall," he said. "If she returns after he fails, people will believe the story. Lefferts is not alone in thinking it."
Source English
"Well, well: it's a pity she didn't go back before Beaufort's cropper," he repeated. "If she goes now, and if he fails, it will only confirm the general impression: which isn't by any means peculiar to Lefferts, by the way."
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59
Easy English
"She will not return now," Archer said. "She will be less willing than ever."
At once, he knew this was another waiting trap. Mr. Jackson studied him.
Source English
"Oh, she won't go back now: less than ever!" Archer had no sooner said it than he had once more the feeling that it was exactly what Mr. Jackson had been waiting for.
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60
Easy English
"That is your opinion? No doubt you know," he said. "But Medora's last small amount is all in Beaufort's hands. Everyone will tell you that."
"How will the two women live if he fails?" he asked. "I cannot imagine it. Ellen might still win old Catherine's heart. Catherine can give her any amount she chooses."
"But Catherine now most strongly opposes Ellen's choice," he continued. "She also hates giving away good money. The other relations do not care if Ellen stays."
Source English
The old gentleman considered him attentively. "That's your opinion, eh? Well, no doubt you know. But everybody will tell you that the few pennies Medora Manson has left are all in Beaufort's hands; and how the two women are to keep their heads above water unless he does, I can't imagine. Of course, Madame Olenska may still soften old Catherine, who's been the most inexorably opposed to her staying; and old Catherine could make her any allowance she chooses. But we all know that she hates parting with good money; and the rest of the family have no particular interest in keeping Madame Olenska here."
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61
Easy English
Archer burned with useless anger. He knew he might do something foolish. Yet he could not stop the feeling.
Source English
Archer was burning with unavailing wrath: he was exactly in the state when a man is sure to do something stupid, knowing all the while that he is doing it.
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62
Easy English
Mr. Jackson saw that Archer knew nothing of this family fight. He surely formed his own ideas. He wondered why the family kept Archer outside its plans. This should have warned Archer to speak with care.
But the claim about Ellen and Beaufort made him wild. Still, Mr. Jackson sat under Mrs. Archer's roof.
Therefore he was Archer's guest. Old New York had strict rules about guests.
A discussion could never become an open fight.
Source English
He saw that Mr. Jackson had been instantly struck by the fact that Madame Olenska's differences with her grandmother and her other relations were not known to him, and that the old gentleman had drawn his own conclusions as to the reasons for Archer's exclusion from the family councils. This fact warned Archer to go warily; but the insinuations about Beaufort made him reckless. He was mindful, however, if not of his own danger, at least of the fact that Mr. Jackson was under his mother's roof, and consequently his guest. Old New York scrupulously observed the etiquette of hospitality, and no discussion with a guest was ever allowed to degenerate into a disagreement.
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63
Easy English
"Shall we join my mother?" Archer asked in a short voice.
Mr. Jackson's last gray cone of ash fell. It dropped into the brass plate beside him.
Source English
"Shall we go up and join my mother?" he suggested curtly, as Mr. Jackson's last cone of ashes dropped into the brass ashtray at his elbow.
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64
Easy English
During the drive home, May was strangely silent. Darkness hid her face. Yet Archer still felt surrounded by her dangerous red color. He could not understand the danger.
Ellen's name caused it. That fact gave him a clear warning.
Source English
On the drive homeward May remained oddly silent; through the darkness, he still felt her enveloped in her menacing blush. What its menace meant he could not guess: but he was sufficiently warned by the fact that Madame Olenska's name had evoked it.
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65
Easy English
At home, they went upstairs. Archer turned into the library. May usually followed him. This time, he heard her walk toward her bedroom.
Source English
They went upstairs, and he turned into the library. She usually followed him; but he heard her passing down the passage to her bedroom.
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66
Easy English
"May!" he called with sudden anger.
She came back. His voice seemed to surprise her a little.
Source English
"May!" he called out impatiently; and she came back, with a slight glance of surprise at his tone.
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67
Easy English
"This lamp is smoking again," he complained. "The servants should keep it cut correctly."
Source English
"This lamp is smoking again; I should think the servants might see that it's kept properly trimmed," he grumbled nervously.
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68
Easy English
"I am very sorry," she answered. "It will not happen again."
Her voice was firm and bright. Mrs. Welland used the same voice.
Archer felt that May now treated him like another Mr. Welland. She gently managed his small bad moods.
The thought made him more angry. May bent over and lowered the lamp's burning string. The stronger light touched her white shoulders. It also showed the clear lines of her face.
She was so young. Archer thought of the endless years before them. Their shared life must go on through all those years.
Source English
"I'm so sorry: it shan't happen again," she answered, in the firm bright tone she had learned from her mother; and it exasperated Archer to feel that she was already beginning to humour him like a younger Mr. Welland. She bent over to lower the wick, and as the light struck up on her white shoulders and the clear curves of her face he thought: "How young she is! For what endless years this life will have to go on!"
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69
Easy English
He felt his own strong youth with fear. His blood moved hard and fast inside him.
"Listen," he said suddenly. "I may need to visit Washington for a few days. It may happen next week."
Source English
He felt, with a kind of horror, his own strong youth and the bounding blood in his veins. "Look here," he said suddenly, "I may have to go to Washington for a few days--soon; next week perhaps."
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70
Easy English
May kept her hand on the lamp key. She turned toward him slowly. The heat gave color to her face. Then her face became pale.
Source English
Her hand remained on the key of the lamp as she turned to him slowly. The heat from its flame had brought back a glow to her face, but it paled as she looked up.
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71
Easy English
"For business?" she asked.
Her voice allowed no other possible reason. The question only seemed to finish his own statement.
Source English
"On business?" she asked, in a tone which implied that there could be no other conceivable reason, and that she had put the question automatically, as if merely to finish his own sentence.
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72
Easy English
"For business, of course," Archer said. "A case about an inventor will reach the Supreme Court."
He gave the inventor's name. Then he added many smooth details. Lawrence Lefferts could tell a false story in that easy way. May listened carefully.
Source English
"On business, naturally. There's a patent case coming up before the Supreme Court--" He gave the name of the inventor, and went on furnishing details with all Lawrence Lefferts's practised glibness, while she listened attentively, saying at intervals: "Yes, I see."
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73
Easy English
"Yes, I see," she said from time to time.
When he finished, she answered simply. "The change will be good for you. You must be sure to visit Ellen."
She looked straight into his eyes. Her smile was open and clear. Her voice made the visit sound like a hard family duty.
Source English
"The change will do you good," she said simply, when he had finished; "and you must be sure to go and see Ellen," she added, looking him straight in the eyes with her cloudless smile, and speaking in the tone she might have employed in urging him not to neglect some irksome family duty.
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74
Easy English
They said nothing more about it. Yet both understood the secret rules inside her words. May knew what people said about Ellen. She agreed with her family's wish.
They wanted Ellen to return to her husband. May also knew that Archer opposed this plan. He did not tell May why. His support helped Ellen stand against the family.
Now Ellen faced the kind of talk Mr. Jackson shared. May knew that this talk made Archer angry. Other people offered him warnings. He refused to understand them.
So May gave him a warning herself. Polite people of their kind spoke in this hidden way. She knew he planned to see Ellen. Perhaps that was his only reason for going.
May openly approved the visit. That approval carried a demand. Archer must tell Ellen where her present choice could lead.
Source English
It was the only word that passed between them on the subject; but in the code in which they had both been trained it meant: "Of course you understand that I know all that people have been saying about Ellen, and heartily sympathise with my family in their effort to get her to return to her husband. I also know that, for some reason you have not chosen to tell me, you have advised her against this course, which all the older men of the family, as well as our grandmother, agree in approving; and that it is owing to your encouragement that Ellen defies us all, and exposes herself to the kind of criticism of which Mr. Sillerton Jackson probably gave you, this evening, the hint that has made you so irritable.... Hints have indeed not been wanting; but since you appear unwilling to take them from others, I offer you this one myself, in the only form in which well-bred people of our kind can communicate unpleasant things to each other: by letting you understand that I know you mean to see Ellen when you are in Washington, and are perhaps going there expressly for that purpose; and that, since you are sure to see her, I wish you to do so with my full and explicit approval--and to take the opportunity of letting her know what the course of conduct you have encouraged her in is likely to lead to."
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75
Easy English
All this passed without another spoken word. May's hand still rested on the lamp key. She turned the light down. Then she lifted the round glass cover.
She blew upon the unhappy flame.
Source English
Her hand was still on the key of the lamp when the last word of this mute message reached him. She turned the wick down, lifted off the globe, and breathed on the sulky flame.
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76
Easy English
"They smell less when someone blows them out," she said brightly.
At the bedroom door, May turned and waited.
Archer gave her the usual kiss.
Source English
"They smell less if one blows them out," she explained, with her bright housekeeping air. On the threshold she turned and paused for his kiss.