The Age of Innocence · Parallel

01

Easy English

May's dark blue brougham met Archer at the ferry. Its bright wedding paint still looked new. The fine carriage carried him to the Pennsylvania station in Jersey City.

Source English

His wife's dark blue brougham (with the wedding varnish still on it) met Archer at the ferry, and conveyed him luxuriously to the Pennsylvania terminus in Jersey City.

02

Easy English

The afternoon was dark and snowy. Gas lamps burned inside the great station. Every sound came back from its high walls. Archer walked along the train platform and waited.

The fast train was coming from Washington. Archer remembered a strange future plan. Some people believed in a train tunnel under the Hudson. A tunnel was a long road built under the ground.

Pennsylvania trains would then run straight into New York.

Those people dreamed of many new wonders. Ships would cross the Atlantic in five days. A flying machine would carry people through the air. Electricity would fill homes with light.

Electricity was a new power that moved through wires.

People would even speak by telephone without wires. A telephone carried a person's voice along a wire. Such things belonged in an Arabian Nights story. That old book was full of magic wonders.

Source English

It was a sombre snowy afternoon, and the gas-lamps were lit in the big reverberating station. As he paced the platform, waiting for the Washington express, he remembered that there were people who thought there would one day be a tunnel under the Hudson through which the trains of the Pennsylvania railway would run straight into New York. They were of the brotherhood of visionaries who likewise predicted the building of ships that would cross the Atlantic in five days, the invention of a flying machine, lighting by electricity, telephonic communication without wires, and other Arabian Night marvels.

03

Easy English

"I do not care which dream comes true," Archer thought. "I only need that tunnel to remain a dream today."

He felt a schoolboy's foolish joy. In his mind, he watched Ellen leave the train. He found her far away among empty faces. She held his arm while he led her outside.

They entered the carriage. It moved slowly toward the ferry landing. Horses slipped on the snowy street. Heavy carts filled the road, and their drivers shouted.

Then the ferry gave them sudden peace. The carriage stood still on the boat. Snow fell around them. Archer and Ellen sat close beside each other.

The earth would seem to move under them. It would carry them toward the sun's far side. Archer had a great number of things to say. Each perfect speech waited on his lips.

Source English

"I don't care which of their visions comes true," Archer mused, "as long as the tunnel isn't built yet." In his senseless school-boy happiness he pictured Madame Olenska's descent from the train, his discovery of her a long way off, among the throngs of meaningless faces, her clinging to his arm as he guided her to the carriage, their slow approach to the wharf among slipping horses, laden carts, vociferating teamsters, and then the startling quiet of the ferry-boat, where they would sit side by side under the snow, in the motionless carriage, while the earth seemed to glide away under them, rolling to the other side of the sun. It was incredible, the number of things he had to say to her, and in what eloquent order they were forming themselves on his lips ...

04

Easy English

The train made loud metal cries. It came slowly into the station. It looked like a great animal. The animal carried captured people back to its dark home.

Archer pushed through the crowd. He looked blindly into each high train window. Then Ellen's pale and surprised face appeared very near.

Once again, Archer felt ashamed. He forgot her real face while they were apart. Each new sight of her surprised him.

Source English

The clanging and groaning of the train came nearer, and it staggered slowly into the station like a prey-laden monster into its lair. Archer pushed forward, elbowing through the crowd, and staring blindly into window after window of the high-hung carriages. And then, suddenly, he saw Madame Olenska's pale and surprised face close at hand, and had again the mortified sensation of having forgotten what she looked like.

05

Easy English

They reached each other, and their hands met. Archer drew her arm through his.

"This way," he said. "I brought the carriage."

Source English

They reached each other, their hands met, and he drew her arm through his. "This way--I have the carriage," he said.

06

Easy English

After that, his dream became real. He helped Ellen and her bags into the brougham. He explained that her grandmother was better. He also told her about Beaufort.

Later, he hardly remembered his own words. But Ellen's soft answer stayed with him.

"Poor Regina!"

The carriage worked free of the station crowd. Then it went down the wet hill. Coal carts moved from side to side. Frightened horses and untidy delivery carts blocked the way.

An empty hearse passed them. A hearse was a dark carriage that carried a dead person. Ellen shut her eyes and caught Archer's hand.

Source English

After that it all happened as he had dreamed. He helped her into the brougham with her bags, and had afterward the vague recollection of having properly reassured her about her grandmother and given her a summary of the Beaufort situation (he was struck by the softness of her: "Poor Regina!"). Meanwhile the carriage had worked its way out of the coil about the station, and they were crawling down the slippery incline to the wharf, menaced by swaying coal-carts, bewildered horses, dishevelled express-wagons, and an empty hearse--ah, that hearse! She shut her eyes as it passed, and clutched at Archer's hand.

07

Easy English

"If it means something about poor Granny!"

Source English

"If only it doesn't mean--poor Granny!"

08

Easy English

"No, no," he said. "She is much better. She is truly safe. Look, the hearse is past us now!"

He spoke as if passing it changed its meaning. Ellen kept her hand in his. The carriage crossed a wooden bridge onto the ferry. It jumped and leaned with the movement.

Archer bent over her hand. He opened the buttons of her tight brown glove. Then he kissed her palm like a holy relic. A relic was an object made holy by someone from the past.

Ellen gently pulled away with a small smile.

"You did not expect me today?" he asked.

Source English

"Oh, no, no--she's much better--she's all right, really. There--we've passed it!" he exclaimed, as if that made all the difference. Her hand remained in his, and as the carriage lurched across the gang-plank onto the ferry he bent over, unbuttoned her tight brown glove, and kissed her palm as if he had kissed a relic. She disengaged herself with a faint smile, and he said: "You didn't expect me today?"

09

Easy English

"Oh, no."

Source English

"Oh, no."

10

Easy English

"I planned to visit you in Washington. Everything was ready. Our trains almost passed each other."

Source English

"I meant to go to Washington to see you. I'd made all my arrangements--I very nearly crossed you in the train."

11

Easy English

"Oh," she said.

She seemed frightened by how close they came to missing each other.

Source English

"Oh--" she exclaimed, as if terrified by the narrowness of their escape.

12

Easy English

"Do you know that I almost forgot you?" Archer asked.

Source English

"Do you know--I hardly remembered you?"

13

Easy English

"Almost forgot me?"

Source English

"Hardly remembered me?"

14

Easy English

"I mean your face. How can I explain it? This happens every time. Each meeting makes you new to me again."

Source English

"I mean: how shall I explain? I--it's always so. Each time you happen to me all over again."

15

Easy English

"Oh, yes. I know! I know!"

Source English

"Oh, yes: I know! I know!"

16

Easy English

"Does the same thing happen to you? Do I become new again?"

Source English

"Does it--do I too: to you?" he insisted.

17

Easy English

Ellen nodded and looked out the window.

Source English

She nodded, looking out of the window.

18

Easy English

"Ellen, Ellen, Ellen!"

Source English

"Ellen--Ellen--Ellen!"

19

Easy English

She did not answer. Archer watched her face from the side. Snow marked the dark glass behind it. Her face slowly became unclear in the fading light.

What did she do during those four long months? They knew so little about each other. Yet they sat very close. The last precious minutes passed away.

Archer forgot all his planned words. He could only think about their strange position. They were far apart and close together. Their bodies almost touched, but neither could see the other's face.

Source English

She made no answer, and he sat in silence, watching her profile grow indistinct against the snow-streaked dusk beyond the window. What had she been doing in all those four long months, he wondered? How little they knew of each other, after all! The precious moments were slipping away, but he had forgotten everything that he had meant to say to her and could only helplessly brood on the mystery of their remoteness and their proximity, which seemed to be symbolised by the fact of their sitting so close to each other, and yet being unable to see each other's faces.

20

Easy English

Ellen suddenly turned from the window. "What a pretty carriage. Is it May's?"

Source English

"What a pretty carriage! Is it May's?" she asked, suddenly turning her face from the window.

21

Easy English

"Yes."

Source English

"Yes."

22

Easy English

"Then May sent you to meet me? How kind of her!"

Source English

"It was May who sent you to fetch me, then? How kind of her!"

23

Easy English

Archer waited before answering. Then his words came out with force.

"Your husband's secretary visited me after our Boston meeting."

Source English

He made no answer for a moment; then he said explosively: "Your husband's secretary came to see me the day after we met in Boston."

24

Easy English

Archer did not mention M. Rivière in his short letter. He planned to keep the visit secret. Then Ellen reminded him of May's carriage. He wanted to strike back.

Would Ellen enjoy hearing Rivière's name? Archer did not enjoy hearing May's. Again, he tried to break Ellen's calm. She showed no surprise.

Archer quickly formed a jealous thought. Rivière must write to her.

Source English

In his brief letter to her he had made no allusion to M. Rivière's visit, and his intention had been to bury the incident in his bosom. But her reminder that they were in his wife's carriage provoked him to an impulse of retaliation. He would see if she liked his reference to Rivière any better than he liked hers to May! As on certain other occasions when he had expected to shake her out of her usual composure, she betrayed no sign of surprise: and at once he concluded: "He writes to her, then."

25

Easy English

"M. Rivière visited you?" Ellen asked.

Source English

"M. Rivière went to see you?"

26

Easy English

"Yes. Did you not know?"

Source English

"Yes: didn't you know?"

27

Easy English

"No," she answered simply.

Source English

"No," she answered simply.

28

Easy English

"And you are not surprised?"

Source English

"And you're not surprised?"

29

Easy English

Ellen waited a moment. "Why should I be surprised? In Boston, he said that he knew you. I think he met you in England."

Source English

She hesitated. "Why should I be? He told me in Boston that he knew you; that he'd met you in England I think."

30

Easy English

"Ellen, I must ask you one thing."

Source English

"Ellen--I must ask you one thing."

31

Easy English

"Yes."

Source English

"Yes."

32

Easy English

"I wanted to ask after his visit," Archer said. "I could not put it in a letter. Did Rivière help you escape your husband?"

Source English

"I wanted to ask it after I saw him, but I couldn't put it in a letter. It was Rivière who helped you to get away--when you left your husband?"

33

Easy English

Archer's heart beat so hard that he could hardly breathe. Would she still answer calmly?

Source English

His heart was beating suffocatingly. Would she meet this question with the same composure?

34

Easy English

"Yes. I owe him a great debt," Ellen said.

Source English

"Yes: I owe him a great debt," she answered, without the least tremor in her quiet voice.

35

Easy English

Her quiet voice did not shake. Her natural answer calmed Archer's inner storm. Once more, her simple truth made his own thoughts seem narrow.

Archer believed that he broke society's rules. Yet his jealousy came from those same rules.

Source English

Her tone was so natural, so almost indifferent, that Archer's turmoil subsided. Once more she had managed, by her sheer simplicity, to make him feel stupidly conventional just when he thought he was flinging convention to the winds.

36

Easy English

"You are the most honest woman I ever met!" he cried.

Source English

"I think you're the most honest woman I ever met!" he exclaimed.

37

Easy English

"Oh, no. Perhaps I only make less trouble about things."

A smile warmed her voice.

Source English

"Oh, no--but probably one of the least fussy," she answered, a smile in her voice.

38

Easy English

"Use any words you like," Archer said. "You see things as they truly are."

Source English

"Call it what you like: you look at things as they are."

39

Easy English

"I needed to see them. I needed to look at the Gorgon."

The Gorgon was a female monster in an old Greek story. Anyone who looked at her became stone.

Source English

"Ah--I've had to. I've had to look at the Gorgon."

40

Easy English

"Well, she did not make you blind," Archer said. "You saw an old false monster like all the others."

Source English

"Well--it hasn't blinded you! You've seen that she's just an old bogey like all the others."

41

Easy English

"She does not make people blind. But she dries all their tears."

Source English

"She doesn't blind one; but she dries up one's tears."

42

Easy English

Archer's next request died on his lips. Ellen spoke from a life he could not reach. Her pain went far beyond his own experience.

The ferry stopped moving forward. Its front struck the heavy wood at the landing. The blow made the brougham shake. Archer and Ellen fell against each other.

Archer felt her shoulder against him. His whole body shook. He put his arm around her.

Source English

The answer checked the pleading on Archer's lips: it seemed to come from depths of experience beyond his reach. The slow advance of the ferry-boat had ceased, and her bows bumped against the piles of the slip with a violence that made the brougham stagger, and flung Archer and Madame Olenska against each other. The young man, trembling, felt the pressure of her shoulder, and passed his arm about her.

43

Easy English

"If you can see clearly, you must understand. This cannot continue."

Source English

"If you're not blind, then, you must see that this can't last."

44

Easy English

"What cannot continue?"

Source English

"What can't?"

45

Easy English

"We are together, but we are never truly together."

Source English

"Our being together--and not together."

46

Easy English

"No," Ellen said in a changed voice. "You should not be here today."

Suddenly she turned and put both arms around him. Her lips pressed against his.

At that same moment, the carriage moved. A gas lamp stood at the ferry gate. Its bright light flashed through the window.

Ellen moved away. They sat without speech or movement. Around them, many carriages fought to leave the ferry. The brougham slowly pushed through.

When they reached the street, Archer spoke quickly.

Source English

"No. You ought not to have come today," she said in an altered voice; and suddenly she turned, flung her arms about him and pressed her lips to his. At the same moment the carriage began to move, and a gas-lamp at the head of the slip flashed its light into the window. She drew away, and they sat silent and motionless while the brougham struggled through the congestion of carriages about the ferry-landing. As they gained the street Archer began to speak hurriedly.

47

Easy English

"Do not fear me," he said. "You do not need to hide in your corner. I do not want one stolen kiss."

"Look at me. I am not even touching your coat. I understand why you fear a common secret love."

"We stay apart, and I burn for you," he continued. "Before a meeting, one great fire fills my mind. Then you come, and you are more than my memory."

"I want more than a few hours with you. I cannot bear long dry months between them. So I can sit still now."

Source English

"Don't be afraid of me: you needn't squeeze yourself back into your corner like that. A stolen kiss isn't what I want. Look: I'm not even trying to touch the sleeve of your jacket. Don't suppose that I don't understand your reasons for not wanting to let this feeling between us dwindle into an ordinary hole-and-corner love-affair. I couldn't have spoken like this yesterday, because when we've been apart, and I'm looking forward to seeing you, every thought is burnt up in a great flame. But then you come; and you're so much more than I remembered, and what I want of you is so much more than an hour or two every now and then, with wastes of thirsty waiting between, that I can sit perfectly still beside you, like this, with that other vision in my mind, just quietly trusting to it to come true."

48

Easy English

"I hold a different future in my mind. I calmly trust that it will become real."

Ellen did not answer at first. Then her voice became almost too soft to hear.

"What do you mean by trusting it?"

Source English

For a moment she made no reply; then she asked, hardly above a whisper: "What do you mean by trusting to it to come true?"

49

Easy English

"You know our future will become real, do you not?"

Source English

"Why--you know it will, don't you?"

50

Easy English

"You mean a future with you and me together?"

Ellen gave a sudden hard laugh. "You chose a fine place for this request!"

Source English

"Your vision of you and me together?" She burst into a sudden hard laugh. "You choose your place well to put it to me!"

51

Easy English

"Do you mean May's brougham?" Archer asked. "We can get out and walk. A little snow will not trouble you."

Source English

"Do you mean because we're in my wife's brougham? Shall we get out and walk, then? I don't suppose you mind a little snow?"

52

Easy English

Ellen laughed again, but more gently. "No, I will not walk. I must reach Granny as soon as I can."

"You will sit beside me," she continued. "We will look at real life. We will not look at dreams."

Source English

She laughed again, more gently. "No; I shan't get out and walk, because my business is to get to Granny's as quickly as I can. And you'll sit beside me, and we'll look, not at visions, but at realities."

53

Easy English

"I do not know what you call real life. This is my only real life."

Source English

"I don't know what you mean by realities. The only reality to me is this."

54

Easy English

Ellen answered with a long silence. The carriage rolled down a dark side street. Then it turned into Fifth Avenue's sharp, bright lights.

Source English

She met the words with a long silence, during which the carriage rolled down an obscure side-street and then turned into the searching illumination of Fifth Avenue.

55

Easy English

"Do you want me to live as your mistress?" she asked. "I cannot be your wife."

Source English

"Is it your idea, then, that I should live with you as your mistress--since I can't be your wife?" she asked.

56

Easy English

A mistress was a woman in a secret love with a married man. Her plain question shocked Archer. Women in his group never used that word. They avoided it even when discussing such lives.

Ellen spoke it like an ordinary word. Perhaps people often used it near her in Europe. She escaped from a terrible married life there. The thought stopped Archer and broke his speech.

Source English

The crudeness of the question startled him: the word was one that women of his class fought shy of, even when their talk flitted closest about the topic. He noticed that Madame Olenska pronounced it as if it had a recognised place in her vocabulary, and he wondered if it had been used familiarly in her presence in the horrible life she had fled from. Her question pulled him up with a jerk, and he floundered.

57

Easy English

"I want to escape with you," he said at last. "We would find a world without such words. No one would place us in such groups."

"We would only be two people in love," he continued. "Each would be the other's whole life. Nothing else on earth would matter."

Source English

"I want--I want somehow to get away with you into a world where words like that--categories like that--won't exist. Where we shall be simply two human beings who love each other, who are the whole of life to each other; and nothing else on earth will matter."

58

Easy English

Ellen took a deep breath, and it ended in laughter.

"Oh, my dear, where is that country? Have you ever visited it?"

Archer said nothing.

"I know many people who tried to find it," Ellen continued. "They all left the train at the wrong small station."

"Some stopped at Boulogne, Pisa, or Monte Carlo. Each place was like the world they left. It was only smaller and dirtier. Everyone's life became mixed with everyone else's."

Source English

She drew a deep sigh that ended in another laugh. "Oh, my dear--where is that country? Have you ever been there?" she asked; and as he remained sullenly dumb she went on: "I know so many who've tried to find it; and, believe me, they all got out by mistake at wayside stations: at places like Boulogne, or Pisa, or Monte Carlo--and it wasn't at all different from the old world they'd left, but only rather smaller and dingier and more promiscuous."

59

Easy English

Archer never heard her use this hard voice. He remembered her words about the Gorgon.

Source English

He had never heard her speak in such a tone, and he remembered the phrase she had used a little while before.

60

Easy English

"Yes, the Gorgon dried your tears," he said.

Source English

"Yes, the Gorgon has dried your tears," he said.

61

Easy English

"She also opened my eyes," Ellen answered. "People say she makes you blind. That is false. She does the opposite."

"She holds your eyes open forever. You can never return to blessed darkness. The Chinese may have used such pain against people. If not, someone should have invented it."

"Believe me, your dream is a poor little country."

Source English

"Well, she opened my eyes too; it's a delusion to say that she blinds people. What she does is just the contrary--she fastens their eyelids open, so that they're never again in the blessed darkness. Isn't there a Chinese torture like that? There ought to be. Ah, believe me, it's a miserable little country!"

62

Easy English

The carriage crossed Forty-second Street. May's strong horse carried them north at great speed. It ran like a Kentucky trotter. A trotter was a horse trained to race with quick steps.

Archer felt the wasted minutes like hands around his throat. His words did nothing.

Source English

The carriage had crossed Forty-second Street: May's sturdy brougham-horse was carrying them northward as if he had been a Kentucky trotter. Archer choked with the sense of wasted minutes and vain words.

63

Easy English

"Then what is your plan for us?" he asked.

Source English

"Then what, exactly, is your plan for us?" he asked.

64

Easy English

"For us? There is no us in that way," Ellen said. "We stay close only by staying far apart. Then we can remain ourselves."

"Otherwise, you are Newland Archer, married to my cousin. I am Ellen Olenska, your wife's cousin. We would seek joy behind the backs of people who trust us."

Source English

"For us? But there's no us in that sense! We're near each other only if we stay far from each other. Then we can be ourselves. Otherwise we're only Newland Archer, the husband of Ellen Olenska's cousin, and Ellen Olenska, the cousin of Newland Archer's wife, trying to be happy behind the backs of the people who trust them."

65

Easy English

"Ah, I am past caring about that," he said in pain.

Source English

"Ah, I'm beyond that," he groaned.

66

Easy English

"No, you are not. You have never gone past it," Ellen said. Her voice sounded strange. "I have gone there. I know what waits beyond it."

Source English

"No, you're not! You've never been beyond. And I have," she said, in a strange voice, "and I know what it looks like there."

67

Easy English

Archer sat in silence. His pain had no words. In the dark carriage, he felt for the small bell. It gave orders to the driver.

May rang it twice when she wanted to stop. Archer pressed it. The carriage stopped beside the street edge.

Source English

He sat silent, dazed with inarticulate pain. Then he groped in the darkness of the carriage for the little bell that signalled orders to the coachman. He remembered that May rang twice when she wished to stop. He pressed the bell, and the carriage drew up beside the curbstone.

68

Easy English

"Why did we stop?" Ellen asked. "This is not Granny's house."

Source English

"Why are we stopping? This is not Granny's," Madame Olenska exclaimed.

69

Easy English

"No. I will leave here."

Archer opened the door and jumped onto the street. A street lamp showed Ellen's shocked face. She moved as if she wanted to stop him.

He closed the door. Then he leaned near the window for one moment.

Source English

"No: I shall get out here," he stammered, opening the door and jumping to the pavement. By the light of a street-lamp he saw her startled face, and the instinctive motion she made to detain him. He closed the door, and leaned for a moment in the window.

70

Easy English

"You were right," he said softly. "I should not have come today."

He kept his voice low, so the driver could not hear. Ellen leaned forward and seemed ready to speak. Archer already called to the driver.

The brougham rolled away. Archer stood alone on the corner. The snow stopped, and a sharp wind rose. It struck his face while he watched the carriage.

Then something stiff and cold touched his eyes. Archer understood that he was crying. The winter wind froze his tears.

Source English

"You're right: I ought not to have come today," he said, lowering his voice so that the coachman should not hear. She bent forward, and seemed about to speak; but he had already called out the order to drive on, and the carriage rolled away while he stood on the corner. The snow was over, and a tingling wind had sprung up, that lashed his face as he stood gazing. Suddenly he felt something stiff and cold on his lashes, and perceived that he had been crying, and that the wind had frozen his tears.

71

Easy English

He pushed his hands into his pockets. Then he walked quickly down Fifth Avenue toward home.

Source English

He thrust his hands in his pockets, and walked at a sharp pace down Fifth Avenue to his own house.