The Age of Innocence | Page 5

probed to the bottom of his vanity (as he
sometimes nearly did) he would have found there the wish that his wife
should be as worldly-wise and as eager to please as the married lady
whose charms had held his fancy through two mildly agitated years;
without, of course, any hint of the frailty which had so nearly marred
that unhappy being's life, and had disarranged his own plans for a
whole winter.
How this miracle of fire and ice was to be created, and to sustain itself
in a harsh world, he had never taken the time to think out; but he was
content to hold his view without analysing it, since he knew it was that
of all the carefully-brushed, white-waistcoated, button- hole-flowered
gentlemen who succeeded each other in the club box, exchanged
friendly greetings with him, and turned their opera-glasses critically on
the circle of ladies who were the product of the system. In matters

intellectual and artistic Newland Archer felt himself distinctly the
superior of these chosen specimens of old New York gentility; he had
probably read more, thought more, and even seen a good deal more of
the world, than any other man of the number. Singly they betrayed their
inferiority; but grouped together they represented "New York," and the
habit of masculine solidarity made him accept their doctrine on all the
issues called moral. He instinctively felt that in this respect it would be
troublesome--and also rather bad form--to strike out for himself.
"Well--upon my soul!" exclaimed Lawrence Lefferts, turning his
opera-glass abruptly away from the stage. Lawrence Lefferts was, on
the whole, the foremost authority on "form" in New York. He had
probably devoted more time than any one else to the study of this
intricate and fascinating question; but study alone could not account for
his complete and easy competence. One had only to look at him, from
the slant of his bald forehead and the curve of his beautiful fair
moustache to the long patent-leather feet at the other end of his lean
and elegant person, to feel that the knowledge of "form" must be
congenital in any one who knew how to wear such good clothes so
carelessly and carry such height with so much lounging grace. As a
young admirer had once said of him: "If anybody can tell a fellow just
when to wear a black tie with evening clothes and when not to, it's
Larry Lefferts." And on the question of pumps versus patent-leather
"Oxfords" his authority had never been disputed.
"My God!" he said; and silently handed his glass to old Sillerton
Jackson.
Newland Archer, following Lefferts's glance, saw with surprise that his
exclamation had been occasioned by the entry of a new figure into old
Mrs. Mingott's box. It was that of a slim young woman, a little less tall
than May Welland, with brown hair growing in close curls about her
temples and held in place by a narrow band of diamonds. The
suggestion of this headdress, which gave her what was then called a
"Josephine look," was carried out in the cut of the dark blue velvet
gown rather theatrically caught up under her bosom by a girdle with a
large old-fashioned clasp. The wearer of this unusual dress, who
seemed quite unconscious of the attention it was attracting, stood a
moment in the centre of the box, discussing with Mrs. Welland the
propriety of taking the latter's place in the front right- hand corner; then

she yielded with a slight smile, and seated herself in line with Mrs.
Welland's sister-in-law, Mrs. Lovell Mingott, who was installed in the
opposite corner.
Mr. Sillerton Jackson had returned the opera-glass to Lawrence Lefferts.
The whole of the club turned instinctively, waiting to hear what the old
man had to say; for old Mr. Jackson was as great an authority on
"family" as Lawrence Lefferts was on "form." He knew all the
ramifications of New York's cousinships; and could not only elucidate
such complicated questions as that of the connection between the
Mingotts (through the Thorleys) with the Dallases of South Carolina,
and that of the relationship of the elder branch of Philadelphia Thorleys
to the Albany Chiverses (on no account to be confused with the
Manson Chiverses of University Place), but could also enumerate the
leading characteristics of each family: as, for instance, the fabulous
stinginess of the younger lines of Leffertses (the Long Island ones); or
the fatal tendency of the Rushworths to make foolish matches; or the
insanity recurring in every second generation of the Albany Chiverses,
with whom their New York cousins had always refused to
intermarry--with the disastrous exception of poor Medora Manson, who,
as everybody knew . . . but then her mother was a Rushworth.
In addition to this forest of