The Age of Innocence · Parallel

01

Easy English

Old Catherine's news left Archer unable to think clearly. Ellen naturally came from Washington when her grandmother called. Her decision to stay was harder to explain. Catherine was almost well again.

Source English

Archer had been stunned by old Catherine's news. It was only natural that Madame Olenska should have hastened from Washington in response to her grandmother's summons; but that she should have decided to remain under her roof--especially now that Mrs. Mingott had almost regained her health--was less easy to explain.

02

Easy English

Archer knew money did not control Ellen's choice. He knew the exact small amount Count Olenski gave her. It began when they separated.

Without Catherine's help, Ellen could hardly live as a Mingott expected. Medora Manson now shared her home and had lost everything. Ellen's small income could barely feed and dress them both.

Yet Archer knew she did not accept Catherine's offer for money.

Source English

Archer was sure that Madame Olenska's decision had not been influenced by the change in her financial situation. He knew the exact figure of the small income which her husband had allowed her at their separation. Without the addition of her grandmother's allowance it was hardly enough to live on, in any sense known to the Mingott vocabulary; and now that Medora Manson, who shared her life, had been ruined, such a pittance would barely keep the two women clothed and fed. Yet Archer was convinced that Madame Olenska had not accepted her grandmother's offer from interested motives.

03

Easy English

Ellen could give money away without thinking. At other times, she spent large amounts in sudden bursts. Such habits came from a life among great wealth. But money itself meant little to her.

She also lived easily without things her family called necessary. Mrs. Lovell Mingott and Mrs. Welland often complained about this. Ellen knew the rich homes of many countries. Still, she did not care about doing things in the approved way.

Catherine stopped Ellen's money several months before. During that time, Ellen made no effort to win back her favor. So some other reason changed her path.

Source English

She had the heedless generosity and the spasmodic extravagance of persons used to large fortunes, and indifferent to money; but she could go without many things which her relations considered indispensable, and Mrs. Lovell Mingott and Mrs. Welland had often been heard to deplore that any one who had enjoyed the cosmopolitan luxuries of Count Olenski's establishments should care so little about "how things were done." Moreover, as Archer knew, several months had passed since her allowance had been cut off; yet in the interval she had made no effort to regain her grandmother's favour. Therefore if she had changed her course it must be for a different reason.

04

Easy English

Archer did not need to search far for it.

On the way from the ferry, Ellen said they must stay apart. Yet she spoke with her head against his chest. Her words held no planned game.

She fought her fate as Archer fought his. She held tightly to one decision. They must keep faith with those who trusted them.

Ten days passed after her return to New York. During them, Archer stayed away and said nothing. Perhaps his silence showed her his dangerous purpose.

She may have understood that he planned a final step. Once taken, it could never be taken back. Perhaps she suddenly feared her own weakness.

Then staying with Catherine offered a middle path. People in their position often chose such a hidden agreement. It seemed to offer the least fight.

Source English

He did not have far to seek for that reason. On the way from the ferry she had told him that he and she must remain apart; but she had said it with her head on his breast. He knew that there was no calculated coquetry in her words; she was fighting her fate as he had fought his, and clinging desperately to her resolve that they should not break faith with the people who trusted them. But during the ten days which had elapsed since her return to New York she had perhaps guessed from his silence, and from the fact of his making no attempt to see her, that he was meditating a decisive step, a step from which there was no turning back. At the thought, a sudden fear of her own weakness might have seized her, and she might have felt that, after all, it was better to accept the compromise usual in such cases, and follow the line of least resistance.

05

Easy English

One hour earlier, Archer rang Catherine's bell with a clear plan. He meant to speak privately with Ellen. If that failed, he would ask Catherine about Ellen's train.

He would learn the day and hour of her return to Washington. Then he would board the same train. He would travel beside her to Washington and beyond.

His dreams carried them as far as Japan. Yet the place did not matter. Wherever Ellen went, he would follow. She would understand that at once.

He also planned to leave May a note. Its words would close every other road.

Archer thought he wanted that deep jump into the unknown. He thought he was ready. But Catherine's news first brought relief.

Source English

An hour earlier, when he had rung Mrs. Mingott's bell, Archer had fancied that his path was clear before him. He had meant to have a word alone with Madame Olenska, and failing that, to learn from her grandmother on what day, and by which train, she was returning to Washington. In that train he intended to join her, and travel with her to Washington, or as much farther as she was willing to go. His own fancy inclined to Japan. At any rate she would understand at once that, wherever she went, he was going. He meant to leave a note for May that should cut off any other alternative.

06

Easy English

Now he walked home, and relief slowly became dislike. He saw the life waiting before him. Nothing in it was new.

Before marriage, he knew its rules as a free man. He answered only to himself. He could lie with an easy smile and enjoy the clever game.

The game required hidden meetings, careful excuses, and many false words. Men called this "protecting a woman's honor." Novels taught him every move. Older men also explained it after dinner.

Source English

He had fancied himself not only nerved for this plunge but eager to take it; yet his first feeling on hearing that the course of events was changed had been one of relief. Now, however, as he walked home from Mrs. Mingott's, he was conscious of a growing distaste for what lay before him. There was nothing unknown or unfamiliar in the path he was presumably to tread; but when he had trodden it before it was as a free man, who was accountable to no one for his actions, and could lend himself with an amused detachment to the game of precautions and prevarications, concealments and compliances, that the part required. This procedure was called "protecting a woman's honour"; and the best fiction, combined with the after-dinner talk of his elders, had long since initiated him into every detail of its code.

07

Easy English

Now that game looked ugly. His own part seemed especially small.

He remembered Mrs. Thorley Rushworth and her trusting husband. Archer once watched her play the same part. She smiled, joked, watched, and lied without rest.

There was a lie by day and another by night. Each touch and each look held a lie. Every kind word and every fight held one too.

The lie entered every spoken word. It also filled every silence.

Source English

Now he saw the matter in a new light, and his part in it seemed singularly diminished. It was, in fact, that which, with a secret fatuity, he had watched Mrs. Thorley Rushworth play toward a fond and unperceiving husband: a smiling, bantering, humouring, watchful and incessant lie. A lie by day, a lie by night, a lie in every touch and every look; a lie in every caress and every quarrel; a lie in every word and in every silence.

08

Easy English

Society found this part easier for a wife. People expected less truth from women. A wife lived under her husband's power. So she learned the quiet skills of anyone without freedom.

She could also blame her feelings or her weak nerves. People allowed her secret parts of life. Even strict groups usually laughed at the fooled husband.

Source English

It was easier, and less dastardly on the whole, for a wife to play such a part toward her husband. A woman's standard of truthfulness was tacitly held to be lower: she was the subject creature, and versed in the arts of the enslaved. Then she could always plead moods and nerves, and the right not to be held too strictly to account; and even in the most strait-laced societies the laugh was always against the husband.

09

Easy English

But Archer's world did not laugh at a fooled wife. It looked down on married men who continued secret love affairs. Young men received one season for wild behavior. Marriage was supposed to end it.

Source English

But in Archer's little world no one laughed at a wife deceived, and a certain measure of contempt was attached to men who continued their philandering after marriage. In the rotation of crops there was a recognised season for wild oats; but they were not to be sown more than once.

10

Easy English

Archer always agreed with that rule. In his heart, he thought Lawrence Lefferts was a low man.

Yet loving Ellen did not make Archer another Lefferts. Ellen was unlike every other woman. Archer told himself that he was unlike every other man.

Therefore, their case matched no other case. Only they could judge it. The idea was terrible, but it also felt powerful.

Source English

Archer had always shared this view: in his heart he thought Lefferts despicable. But to love Ellen Olenska was not to become a man like Lefferts: for the first time Archer found himself face to face with the dread argument of the individual case. Ellen Olenska was like no other woman, he was like no other man: their situation, therefore, resembled no one else's, and they were answerable to no tribunal but that of their own judgment.

11

Easy English

In ten minutes, however, he would reach his own door. May waited there. So did habit, honor, and all his people's old rules.

Source English

Yes, but in ten minutes more he would be mounting his own doorstep; and there were May, and habit, and honour, and all the old decencies that he and his people had always believed in ...

12

Easy English

At the corner, Archer stopped. Then he passed his street and continued down Fifth Avenue.

Source English

At his corner he hesitated, and then walked on down Fifth Avenue.

13

Easy English

A great dark house stood ahead in the winter night. He often saw it full of light. A cloth roof once covered its steps, and a carpet ran to the street.

Carriages waited outside in two long lines. Music and talk once filled every room. Now the Beaufort house stood silent.

Archer remembered its conservatory. There he first kissed May. In its ballroom, a thousand lights once burned above her.

May came toward him that night in shining silver. She looked tall and bright, like the young god Diana. That old image flashed inside the present darkness.

Now the house looked as black as a grave. Only a weak gas light burned below the street. One upstairs window also showed a little light.

Source English

Ahead of him, in the winter night, loomed a big unlit house. As he drew near he thought how often he had seen it blazing with lights, its steps awninged and carpeted, and carriages waiting in double line to draw up at the curbstone. It was in the conservatory that stretched its dead-black bulk down the side street that he had taken his first kiss from May; it was under the myriad candles of the ball-room that he had seen her appear, tall and silver-shining as a young Diana.

14

Easy English

The blind there remained open. Archer reached the corner and saw a carriage at the door. It belonged to Mrs. Manson Mingott.

What a rich story this would give Sillerton Jackson. He only needed to pass at the right moment.

Catherine's story about Ellen and Regina moved Archer deeply. Ellen walked toward an unhappy woman when New York turned away. The city's proud goodness now looked empty.

Still, Archer knew what the clubs would say. Drawing rooms would give Ellen's visits the worst meaning.

Source English

Now the house was as dark as the grave, except for a faint flare of gas in the basement, and a light in one upstairs room where the blind had not been lowered. As Archer reached the corner he saw that the carriage standing at the door was Mrs. Manson Mingott's. What an opportunity for Sillerton Jackson, if he should chance to pass! Archer had been greatly moved by old Catherine's account of Madame Olenska's attitude toward Mrs. Beaufort; it made the righteous reprobation of New York seem like a passing by on the other side. But he knew well enough what construction the clubs and drawing-rooms would put on Ellen Olenska's visits to her cousin.

15

Easy English

He stopped and looked at the lighted window. Ellen and Regina must be together in that room. Beaufort probably sought comfort somewhere else.

Some people said he left New York with Fanny Ring. Regina's calm position made that story seem less likely. Still, Beaufort was nowhere in sight.

Source English

He paused and looked up at the lighted window. No doubt the two women were sitting together in that room: Beaufort had probably sought consolation elsewhere. There were even rumours that he had left New York with Fanny Ring; but Mrs. Beaufort's attitude made the report seem improbable.

16

Easy English

Archer had almost all of Fifth Avenue to himself. Most people were dressing for dinner indoors. He felt secretly glad. Perhaps no one would see Ellen leave.

Source English

Archer had the nocturnal perspective of Fifth Avenue almost to himself. At that hour most people were indoors, dressing for dinner; and he was secretly glad that Ellen's exit was likely to be unobserved. As the thought passed through his mind the door opened, and she came out. Behind her was a faint light, such as might have been carried down the stairs to show her the way. She turned to say a word to some one; then the door closed, and she came down the steps.

17

Easy English

At that moment, the Beaufort door opened. Ellen stepped into a weak line of light. She turned and spoke to someone behind her.

Then the door shut. Ellen came down the steps.

"Ellen," Archer said softly when she reached the street.

Source English

"Ellen," he said in a low voice, as she reached the pavement.

18

Easy English

She stopped with a small movement of surprise. Just then, Archer saw two fashionable young men coming near. Their coats and fine silk scarves looked familiar.

He wondered why such men went to dinner so early. Then he remembered the Reggie Chivers party. They were going to see Adelaide Neilson in Romeo and Juliet.

The two men passed under a street light. Archer knew Lawrence Lefferts and young Chivers at once.

Source English

She stopped with a slight start, and just then he saw two young men of fashionable cut approaching. There was a familiar air about their overcoats and the way their smart silk mufflers were folded over their white ties; and he wondered how youths of their quality happened to be dining out so early. Then he remembered that the Reggie Chiverses, whose house was a few doors above, were taking a large party that evening to see Adelaide Neilson in Romeo and Juliet, and guessed that the two were of the number. They passed under a lamp, and he recognised Lawrence Lefferts and a young Chivers.

19

Easy English

For one second, Archer wanted to hide Ellen's visit. Then she put her warm hand in his. That weak wish disappeared.

Source English

A mean desire not to have Madame Olenska seen at the Beauforts' door vanished as he felt the penetrating warmth of her hand.

20

Easy English

"Now I will see you," he said. "We will be together." He hardly knew what he was saying.

Source English

"I shall see you now--we shall be together," he broke out, hardly knowing what he said.

21

Easy English

"Oh," Ellen answered. "Granny told you?"

Source English

"Ah," she answered, "Granny has told you?"

22

Easy English

Lefferts and Chivers reached the next corner. They quietly crossed Fifth Avenue and moved away. They wished to protect another man's secret.

Archer often offered other men the same silent help. Now it made him sick. Did Ellen truly think they could live this way? If not, what did she imagine?

Source English

While he watched her he was aware that Lefferts and Chivers, on reaching the farther side of the street corner, had discreetly struck away across Fifth Avenue. It was the kind of masculine solidarity that he himself often practised; now he sickened at their connivance. Did she really imagine that he and she could live like this? And if not, what else did she imagine?

23

Easy English

"I must see you tomorrow," he said. His voice sounded almost angry. "We need a place where we can be alone."

Source English

"Tomorrow I must see you--somewhere where we can be alone," he said, in a voice that sounded almost angry to his own ears.

24

Easy English

Ellen moved toward the carriage, then stopped. "But I will be at Granny's. At least, I will stay there for now."

Source English

She wavered, and moved toward the carriage.

25

Easy English

Her change of plan clearly needed an answer. Archer did not accept this one.

Source English

"But I shall be at Granny's--for the present that is," she added, as if conscious that her change of plans required some explanation.

26

Easy English

"We must meet somewhere alone," he repeated.

Source English

"Somewhere where we can be alone," he insisted.

27

Easy English

No easy-English paragraph was aligned to this source anchor.

Source English

She gave a faint laugh that grated on him.

28

Easy English

Ellen gave a weak laugh. Its sound hurt him. "In New York? But there are no churches here and no old monuments."

Source English

"In New York? But there are no churches ... no monuments."

29

Easy English

She looked puzzled when he answered. "There is the Art Museum in the Park. Meet me at the door at half past two."

Source English

"There's the Art Museum--in the Park," he explained, as she looked puzzled. "At half-past two. I shall be at the door ..."

30

Easy English

Ellen gave no answer. She turned and entered the carriage quickly. As it moved away, she leaned toward the window.

Archer thought he saw her hand move in the darkness. He watched the carriage with many opposite feelings.

He seemed to speak like a tired man with a familiar lover. He did not feel like a man facing the only woman he loved. The old, cheap language held him like a prison.

Source English

She turned away without answering and got quickly into the carriage. As it drove off she leaned forward, and he thought she waved her hand in the obscurity. He stared after her in a turmoil of contradictory feelings. It seemed to him that he had been speaking not to the woman he loved but to another, a woman he was indebted to for pleasures already wearied of: it was hateful to find himself the prisoner of this hackneyed vocabulary.

31

Easy English

"She will come," he told himself. Even his private voice sounded almost cold.

Source English

"She'll come!" he said to himself, almost contemptuously.

32

Easy English

The next afternoon, they met at the Metropolitan Museum. Its strange building mixed dark iron with bright floor stones. Most visitors entered a room filled with the popular Wolfe pictures.

Source English

Avoiding the popular "Wolfe collection," whose anecdotic canvases filled one of the main galleries of the queer wilderness of cast-iron and encaustic tiles known as the Metropolitan Museum, they had wandered down a passage to the room where the "Cesnola antiquities" mouldered in unvisited loneliness.

33

Easy English

Ellen and Archer avoided it. They walked down a quiet passage instead. At last, they reached a room that almost nobody visited.

It held the Cesnola collection from Ilium. The room was full of ancient things, broken by time. Dust and loneliness seemed to cover them.

Ellen and Archer sat on a wide bench around the steam heater. Glass cases stood before them in dark wood frames. Inside lay pieces found in the old city of Ilium.

Source English

They had this melancholy retreat to themselves, and seated on the divan enclosing the central steam-radiator, they were staring silently at the glass cabinets mounted in ebonised wood which contained the recovered fragments of Ilium.

34

Easy English

"It is strange," Ellen said. "I never came here before."

Source English

"It's odd," Madame Olenska said, "I never came here before."

35

Easy English

"Well, perhaps this will become a great museum one day."

Source English

"Ah, well--. Some day, I suppose, it will be a great Museum."

36

Easy English

"Yes," she said, but her mind seemed far away.

Source English

"Yes," she assented absently.

37

Easy English

Ellen rose and crossed the room. Archer stayed on the bench and watched her light steps. Heavy fur covered her, but her movements still looked young.

A long bird feather rose from her fur cap. One dark curl lay beside each ear. Each curl made a flat, turning line like a small plant.

Whenever they met, such details filled Archer's mind. Every small part made Ellen herself. No other woman could have those exact lines.

He stood and joined her at a glass case. Its shelves held many little broken things. Forgotten people once used them at home.

There were cups and small tools of glass or earth. Dark, old metal pieces lay among them. Time changed their colors and hid their purpose.

Source English

She stood up and wandered across the room. Archer, remaining seated, watched the light movements of her figure, so girlish even under its heavy furs, the cleverly planted heron wing in her fur cap, and the way a dark curl lay like a flattened vine spiral on each cheek above the ear. His mind, as always when they first met, was wholly absorbed in the delicious details that made her herself and no other. Presently he rose and approached the case before which she stood. Its glass shelves were crowded with small broken objects--hardly recognisable domestic utensils, ornaments and personal trifles--made of glass, of clay, of discoloured bronze and other time-blurred substances.

38

Easy English

"It seems cruel," Ellen said. "After enough time, nothing matters. Look at these little things. They were once necessary to forgotten people."

Now workers studied them through special glasses. Small signs could only say, "Use unknown."

Source English

"It seems cruel," she said, "that after a while nothing matters ... any more than these little things, that used to be necessary and important to forgotten people, and now have to be guessed at under a magnifying glass and labelled: 'Use unknown.'"

39

Easy English

"Yes," Archer said. "But while we are alive..."

Source English

"Yes; but meanwhile--"

40

Easy English

"Yes. While we are alive."

Source English

"Ah, meanwhile--"

41

Easy English

Ellen wore a long coat of dark fur. Her hands rested inside a small round muff.

Her thin veil came down like a clear mask. It ended at the point of her nose. The small purple flowers Archer brought moved with her quick breath.

The perfect shape and color of her seemed beyond change. How could time ever touch her? The idea felt impossible.

Source English

As she stood there, in her long sealskin coat, her hands thrust in a small round muff, her veil drawn down like a transparent mask to the tip of her nose, and the bunch of violets he had brought her stirring with her quickly-taken breath, it seemed incredible that this pure harmony of line and colour should ever suffer the stupid law of change.

42

Easy English

"Now everything matters if it concerns you," Archer said.

Source English

"Meanwhile everything matters--that concerns you," he said.

43

Easy English

Ellen looked at him for a long moment. Then she returned to the bench. He sat beside her and waited.

Far away, one step sounded through the empty rooms. Archer suddenly felt each passing minute.

Source English

She looked at him thoughtfully, and turned back to the divan. He sat down beside her and waited; but suddenly he heard a step echoing far off down the empty rooms, and felt the pressure of the minutes.

44

Easy English

"What did you want to tell me?" Ellen asked. She seemed to hear the warning too.

Source English

"What is it you wanted to tell me?" she asked, as if she had received the same warning.

45

Easy English

"I believe you came to New York because you were afraid."

Source English

"What I wanted to tell you?" he rejoined. "Why, that I believe you came to New York because you were afraid."

46

Easy English

"Afraid?"

Source English

"Afraid?"

47

Easy English

"You feared that I would come to Washington."

Source English

"Of my coming to Washington."

48

Easy English

Ellen looked down at her muff. Her hidden hands moved inside it.

Source English

She looked down at her muff, and he saw her hands stir in it uneasily.

49

Easy English

"Well?" Archer asked.

Source English

"Well--?"

50

Easy English

"Yes," she said.

Source English

"Well--yes," she said.

51

Easy English

"You were afraid? You knew what I planned?"

Source English

"You were afraid? You knew--?"

52

Easy English

"Yes, I knew."

Source English

"Yes: I knew ..."

53

Easy English

"Then what?"

Source English

"Well, then?" he insisted.

54

Easy English

"This is better, is it not?" Her breath carried the words like a long question.

Source English

"Well, then: this is better, isn't it?" she returned with a long questioning sigh.

55

Easy English

"Better?"

Source English

"Better--?"

56

Easy English

"We will hurt other people less. Is that not what you always wanted?"

Source English

"We shall hurt others less. Isn't it, after all, what you always wanted?"

57

Easy English

"You mean I can reach you but never have you. We can meet secretly like this. That is the opposite of what I want."

Source English

"To have you here, you mean--in reach and yet out of reach? To meet you in this way, on the sly? It's the very reverse of what I want. I told you the other day what I wanted."

58

Easy English

He reminded her what he asked at the ferry.

"And you still think this is worse?" Ellen asked.

Source English

She hesitated. "And you still think this--worse?"

59

Easy English

"A thousand times worse. I could easily lie to you. But the truth is that I hate this plan."

Source English

"A thousand times!" He paused. "It would be easy to lie to you; but the truth is I think it detestable."

60

Easy English

"Oh, so do I," Ellen cried. Her deep breath sounded like relief.

Source English

"Oh, so do I!" she cried with a deep breath of relief.

61

Easy English

Archer stood quickly. "Then tell me what you think is better. In God's name, what can it be?"

Source English

He sprang up impatiently. "Well, then--it's my turn to ask: what is it, in God's name, that you think better?"

62

Easy English

Ellen lowered her head. Her hands opened and closed inside the muff. The distant step came nearer.

A guard entered the room. Gold lines crossed his cap and coat. He moved without interest, like a ghost among the ancient dead.

Ellen and Archer both stared at the case across from them. The guard passed between mummies and great stone boxes for dead people. A mummy was a dead body kept whole for many years.

Source English

She hung her head and continued to clasp and unclasp her hands in her muff. The step drew nearer, and a guardian in a braided cap walked listlessly through the room like a ghost stalking through a necropolis. They fixed their eyes simultaneously on the case opposite them, and when the official figure had vanished down a vista of mummies and sarcophagi Archer spoke again.

63

Easy English

When the guard disappeared, Archer spoke again. "What do you think is better?"

Source English

"What do you think better?"

64

Easy English

Ellen did not answer directly. "I promised Granny that I would stay. I thought I would be safer here."

Source English

Instead of answering she murmured: "I promised Granny to stay with her because it seemed to me that here I should be safer."

65

Easy English

"Safer from me?"

Source English

"From me?"

66

Easy English

She lowered her head but did not look at him.

Source English

She bent her head slightly, without looking at him.

67

Easy English

"Safer from loving me?"

Source English

"Safer from loving me?"

68

Easy English

Her face did not move. Then one tear grew on her lashes. It caught in the thin threads of her veil.

Source English

Her profile did not stir, but he saw a tear overflow on her lashes and hang in a mesh of her veil.

69

Easy English

"Safer from causing harm that can never be repaired. We must not become like all the others."

Source English

"Safer from doing irreparable harm. Don't let us be like all the others!" she protested.

70

Easy English

"What others? I do not claim to be different from other men. The same needs and wishes burn inside me."

Source English

"What others? I don't profess to be different from my kind. I'm consumed by the same wants and the same longings."

71

Easy English

Ellen looked at him with fear. A little color entered her pale cheeks.

Source English

She glanced at him with a kind of terror, and he saw a faint colour steal into her cheeks.

72

Easy English

Then she spoke in a low, clear voice. "Could I come to you once, and then go home?"

Source English

"Shall I--once come to you; and then go home?" she suddenly hazarded in a low clear voice.

73

Easy English

Hot blood rushed into Archer's face. "Dearest," he said, without moving.

His heart seemed full to its edge. He felt that he held it in both hands. One small movement could make it pour over.

Source English

The blood rushed to the young man's forehead. "Dearest!" he said, without moving. It seemed as if he held his heart in his hands, like a full cup that the least motion might overbrim.

74

Easy English

Then her last words reached him. His face grew dark.

"Go home? What do you mean?"

Source English

Then her last phrase struck his ear and his face clouded. "Go home? What do you mean by going home?"

75

Easy English

"Go home to my husband."

Source English

"Home to my husband."

76

Easy English

"Do you expect me to agree to that?"

Source English

"And you expect me to say yes to that?"

77

Easy English

Ellen raised her troubled eyes. "What else can I do? I cannot stay here and lie. These people were good to me."

Source English

She raised her troubled eyes to his. "What else is there? I can't stay here and lie to the people who've been good to me."

78

Easy English

"That is why I ask you to leave with me."

Source English

"But that's the very reason why I ask you to come away!"

79

Easy English

"Can we destroy their lives after they helped me rebuild mine?"

Source English

"And destroy their lives, when they've helped me to remake mine?"

80

Easy English

Archer jumped to his feet. He looked down at her but could not speak.

Source English

Archer sprang to his feet and stood looking down on her in inarticulate despair. It would have been easy to say: "Yes, come; come once." He knew the power she would put in his hands if she consented; there would be no difficulty then in persuading her not to go back to her husband.

81

Easy English

It would be easy to say yes. He could let her come once. Then her choice would place great power in his hands.

After that, he could make her refuse her husband. He could turn one meeting into a trap.

But Ellen's deep honesty stopped the words. If he let her come, he must let her leave again. He could not imagine doing that.

Source English

But something silenced the word on his lips. A sort of passionate honesty in her made it inconceivable that he should try to draw her into that familiar trap. "If I were to let her come," he said to himself, "I should have to let her go again." And that was not to be imagined.

82

Easy English

Then he saw the shadow of her wet lashes. His decision became weak.

Source English

But he saw the shadow of the lashes on her wet cheek, and wavered.

83

Easy English

"We have lives of our own," he began. "We cannot keep trying to do what no one can do."

Source English

"After all," he began again, "we have lives of our own.... There's no use attempting the impossible. You're so unprejudiced about some things, so used, as you say, to looking at the Gorgon, that I don't know why you're afraid to face our case, and see it as it really is--unless you think the sacrifice is not worth making."

84

Easy English

He reminded her of the Gorgon. The Gorgon was a monster whose face turned people to stone. Ellen once said she looked at such terrible truths.

Why could she not face their own case? Perhaps she did not think he was worth the cost.

Ellen stood too. Her mouth became a hard line, and anger crossed her face.

Source English

She stood up also, her lips tightening under a rapid frown.

85

Easy English

"Call it that, then. I must go." She took a little watch from her dress.

Source English

"Call it that, then--I must go," she said, drawing her little watch from her bosom.

86

Easy English

She turned away. Archer followed and caught her wrist.

"Then come to me once," he said. The fear of losing her changed him. For several seconds, they looked almost like enemies.

Source English

She turned away, and he followed and caught her by the wrist. "Well, then: come to me once," he said, his head turning suddenly at the thought of losing her; and for a second or two they looked at each other almost like enemies.

87

Easy English

"When?" he asked. "Tomorrow?"

Source English

"When?" he insisted. "Tomorrow?"

88

Easy English

Ellen waited. "The day after tomorrow."

Source English

She hesitated. "The day after."

89

Easy English

"Dearest," he said again.

Source English

"Dearest--!" he said again.

90

Easy English

She pulled her wrist free. Still, their eyes held each other. Her face became very pale, yet a deep light filled it.

Archer watched with wonder and fear. For the first time, he saw love become visible.

Source English

She had disengaged her wrist; but for a moment they continued to hold each other's eyes, and he saw that her face, which had grown very pale, was flooded with a deep inner radiance. His heart beat with awe: he felt that he had never before beheld love visible.

91

Easy English

"I will be late. Goodbye," Ellen cried. "Do not come farther."

She hurried through the long room. Perhaps the same light in Archer's eyes frightened her. At the door, she turned and quickly waved.

Source English

"Oh, I shall be late--good-bye. No, don't come any farther than this," she cried, walking hurriedly away down the long room, as if the reflected radiance in his eyes had frightened her. When she reached the door she turned for a moment to wave a quick farewell.

92

Easy English

Archer walked home alone. Darkness fell before he entered his house. He looked at every familiar thing in the hall.

They seemed to stand on the other side of the grave. He felt like a dead man looking back at life.

Source English

Archer walked home alone. Darkness was falling when he let himself into his house, and he looked about at the familiar objects in the hall as if he viewed them from the other side of the grave.

93

Easy English

The parlor maid heard him and ran upstairs. She lit the gas above the landing.

Source English

The parlour-maid, hearing his step, ran up the stairs to light the gas on the upper landing.

94

Easy English

"Is Mrs. Archer home?" he asked.

Source English

"Is Mrs. Archer in?"

95

Easy English

"No, sir. She went out in the carriage after lunch. She has not returned."

Source English

"No, sir; Mrs. Archer went out in the carriage after luncheon, and hasn't come back."

96

Easy English

Relief passed through him. He entered the library and dropped into his chair.

The maid followed with the green reading lamp. She added black coal to the weak fire, then left. Archer did not move.

He rested his arms on his knees. His chin lay on his joined hands. He stared into the red fire.

Source English

With a sense of relief he entered the library and flung himself down in his armchair. The parlour-maid followed, bringing the student lamp and shaking some coals onto the dying fire. When she left he continued to sit motionless, his elbows on his knees, his chin on his clasped hands, his eyes fixed on the red grate.

97

Easy English

Time passed without touching him. He had no clear thoughts. A deep and serious wonder seemed to stop his life.

"This was what must happen," he kept telling himself. "This was what must happen."

He felt caught in the hand of fate. Yet his dreams looked nothing like this. A deadly cold lived inside his joy.

Source English

He sat there without conscious thoughts, without sense of the lapse of time, in a deep and grave amazement that seemed to suspend life rather than quicken it. "This was what had to be, then ... this was what had to be," he kept repeating to himself, as if he hung in the clutch of doom. What he had dreamed of had been so different that there was a mortal chill in his rapture.

98

Easy English

The door opened, and May entered.

Source English

The door opened and May came in.

99

Easy English

"I am terribly late. You did not worry, did you?" She placed one hand on his shoulder. She rarely touched him that way.

Source English

"I'm dreadfully late--you weren't worried, were you?" she asked, laying her hand on his shoulder with one of her rare caresses.

100

Easy English

Archer looked up in surprise. "Is it late?"

Source English

He looked up astonished. "Is it late?"

101

Easy English

"It is after seven. I think you were asleep." May laughed.

She pulled the pins from her hat. Then she threw the soft dark hat onto the sofa. Her face looked paler than usual.

Yet a strange, bright life shone in it.

Source English

"After seven. I believe you've been asleep!" She laughed, and drawing out her hat pins tossed her velvet hat on the sofa. She looked paler than usual, but sparkling with an unwonted animation.

102

Easy English

"I went to see Granny," she said. "Ellen returned from a walk as I was leaving. So I stayed for a long talk."

Source English

"I went to see Granny, and just as I was going away Ellen came in from a walk; so I stayed and had a long talk with her. It was ages since we'd had a real talk...." She had dropped into her usual armchair, facing his, and was running her fingers through her rumpled hair. He fancied she expected him to speak.

103

Easy English

It was a very long time since they spoke so openly. May sat in her usual chair across from Archer. She ran her fingers through her untidy hair.

Archer thought she waited for him to speak.

"It was a truly good talk," May continued. Her bright smile did not look natural. "Ellen was so dear, just like the old Ellen."

May feared she was unfair to Ellen lately. Sometimes, she began to explain, she thought certain things.

Source English

"A really good talk," she went on, smiling with what seemed to Archer an unnatural vividness. "She was so dear--just like the old Ellen. I'm afraid I haven't been fair to her lately. I've sometimes thought--"

104

Easy English

Archer stood and leaned against the fireplace. The lamp's green circle did not reach him.

Source English

Archer stood up and leaned against the mantelpiece, out of the radius of the lamp.

105

Easy English

"Yes? What did you think?" he asked when she stopped.

Source English

"Yes, you've thought--?" he echoed as she paused.

106

Easy English

"Perhaps I did not judge her fairly," May said. "She is so different, at least on the outside. She chooses such strange people."

Ellen also seemed to enjoy making people notice her. May blamed her fast European society. New York probably seemed very dull after that life.

"But I do not want to judge her unfairly," May finished.

Source English

"Well, perhaps I haven't judged her fairly. She's so different--at least on the surface. She takes up such odd people--she seems to like to make herself conspicuous. I suppose it's the life she's led in that fast European society; no doubt we seem dreadfully dull to her. But I don't want to judge her unfairly."

107

Easy English

The long speech left her a little breathless. Her lips remained slightly open. Deep red color filled her cheeks.

Source English

She paused again, a little breathless with the unwonted length of her speech, and sat with her lips slightly parted and a deep blush on her cheeks.

108

Easy English

Archer remembered her face in the Mission garden at St. Augustine. The same hidden effort shone there. May reached toward something beyond the limits of her sight.

Source English

Archer, as he looked at her, was reminded of the glow which had suffused her face in the Mission Garden at St. Augustine. He became aware of the same obscure effort in her, the same reaching out toward something beyond the usual range of her vision.

109

Easy English

She hates Ellen, he thought. Now she is trying to defeat that hate. She wants my help.

Source English

"She hates Ellen," he thought, "and she's trying to overcome the feeling, and to get me to help her to overcome it."

110

Easy English

Her effort moved him. For one moment, he almost broke their long silence. He almost placed himself under her kindness.

Source English

The thought moved him, and for a moment he was on the point of breaking the silence between them, and throwing himself on her mercy.

111

Easy English

Then May continued. "You understand why the family sometimes became angry, do you not? We all tried to help Ellen at first."

But Ellen never seemed to understand them. Now she visited Mrs. Beaufort in Granny's carriage. May feared she also lost the van der Luydens' support.

Source English

"You understand, don't you," she went on, "why the family have sometimes been annoyed? We all did what we could for her at first; but she never seemed to understand. And now this idea of going to see Mrs. Beaufort, of going there in Granny's carriage! I'm afraid she's quite alienated the van der Luydens ..."

112

Easy English

"Oh," Archer said with a short, angry laugh.

The open door between them closed again.

Source English

"Ah," said Archer with an impatient laugh. The open door had closed between them again.

113

Easy English

"We are dining out tonight," he said. "It is time to dress."

Source English

"It's time to dress; we're dining out, aren't we?" he asked, moving from the fire.

114

Easy English

May rose but remained near the fire. Archer started to pass her. She suddenly reached forward as if she wanted to stop him.

Their eyes met. Her eyes held the same swimming blue light from Jersey City.

Source English

She rose also, but lingered near the hearth. As he walked past her she moved forward impulsively, as though to detain him: their eyes met, and he saw that hers were of the same swimming blue as when he had left her to drive to Jersey City.

115

Easy English

May threw both arms around his neck. She pressed her cheek against his.

Source English

She flung her arms about his neck and pressed her cheek to his.

116

Easy English

"You have not kissed me today," she whispered.

He felt her whole body shake inside his arms.

Source English

"You haven't kissed me today," she said in a whisper; and he felt her tremble in his arms.