1921 The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

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Poor Medora, repeatedly widowed, was always coming home to settle down (each time in a less expensive
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house), and bringing with her a new husband or an adopted child; but after a few months she invariably parted
from her husband or quarrelled with her ward, and, having got rid of her house at a loss, set out again on her
wanderings. As her mother had been a Rushworth, and her last unhappy marriage had linked her to one of the
crazy Chiverses, New York looked indulgently on her eccentricities; but when she returned with her little
orphaned niece, whose parents had been popular in spite of their regrettable taste for travel, people thought it a
pity that the pretty child should be in such hands.
Every one was disposed to be kind to little Ellen Mingott, though her dusky red cheeks and tight curls gave
her an air of gaiety that seemed unsuitable in a child who should still have been in black for her parents. It was
one of the misguided Medora's many peculiarities to flout the unalterable rules that regulated American
mourning, and when she stepped from the steamer her family were scandalised to see that the crape veil she
wore for her own brother was seven inches shorter than those of her sisters-in-law, while little Ellen was in
crimson merino and amber beads, like a gipsy foundling.
But New York had so long resigned itself to Medora that only a few old ladies shook their heads over Ellen's
gaudy clothes, while her other relations fell under the charm of her high colour and high spirits. She was a
fearless and familiar little thing, who asked disconcerting questions, made precocious comments, and
possessed outlandish arts, such as dancing a Spanish shawl dance and singing Neapolitan love-songs to a
guitar. Under the direction of her aunt (whose real name was Mrs. Thorley Chivers, but who, having received
a Papal title, had resumed her first husband's patronymic, and called herself the Marchioness Manson, because
in Italy she could turn it into Manzoni) the little girl received an expensive but incoherent education, which
included "drawing from the model," a thing never dreamed of before, and playing the piano in quintets with
professional musicians.
Of course no good could come of this; and when, a few years later, poor Chivers finally died in a mad- house,
his widow (draped in strange weeds) again pulled up stakes and departed with Ellen, who had grown into a
tall bony girl with conspicuous eyes. For some time no more was heard of them; then news came of Ellen's
marriage to an immensely rich Polish nobleman of legendary fame, whom she had met at a ball at the
Tuileries, and who was said to have princely establishments in Paris, Nice and Florence, a yacht at Cowes,
and many square miles of shooting in Transylvania. She disappeared in a kind of sulphurous apotheosis, and
when a few years later Medora again came back to New York, subdued, impoverished, mourning a third
husband, and in quest of a still smaller house, people wondered that her rich niece had not been able to do
something for her. Then came the news that Ellen's own marriage had ended in disaster, and that she was
herself returning home to seek rest and oblivion among her kinsfolk.
These things passed through Newland Archer's mind a week later as he watched the Countess Olenska enter
the van der Luyden drawing-room on the evening of the momentous dinner. The occasion was a solemn one,
and he wondered a little nervously how she would carry it off. She came rather late, one hand still ungloved,
and fastening a bracelet about her wrist; yet she entered without any appearance of haste or embarrassment the
drawing-room in which New York's most chosen company was somewhat awfully assembled.
In the middle of the room she paused, looking about her with a grave mouth and smiling eyes; and in that
instant Newland Archer rejected the general verdict on her looks. It was true that her early radiance was gone. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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