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The Age of Innocence[At the Theatre in the evening. Newland Archer enters the box. Steps to the front,joining the company of several men, including Larry Lefferts and Sillerton Jackson. Larrylooks at stage through pearl opera glasses. Then he swings his opera glasses away fromthe stage and t
The Age of Innocence
[At the Theatre in the evening. Newland Archer enters the box. Steps to the front,
joining the company of several men, including Larry Lefferts and Sillerton Jackson. Larry
looks at stage through pearl opera glasses. Then he swings his opera glasses away from
the stage and toward another box. He sees the figure of a woman entering a box across the
way. Although the woman, silhouetted against candles, is still indistinct and mysterious
to us, he recognizes her and reacts with controlled surprise]
LEFFERTS
Well.
JACKSON
I didn't think the Mingotts would have tried it on.
LEFFERTS
Parading her at the opera like that. Sitting her next to May Welland. It's all very
odd.
JACKSON
Well, she's had such an odd life.
LEFFERTS
Will they even bring her to the Beauforts' ball, do you suppose?
JACKSON
If they do, the talk will be little else.
[Archer looks at his companions in the box with just a suggestion of impatience. Then he
turns and leaves]
[Archer goes to the box where May Welland is]
ARCHER
May. Mrs. Welland. Good evening.
MRS. WELLAND
Newland. You know my niece Countess Olenska.
[Archer bows with the suggestion of reserve. Countess Olenska replies with a nod.
Newland sits beside May and speaks softly]
ARCHER
I hope you've told Madame Olenska.
MAY
(teasing)
What?
ARCHER
That we're engaged. I want everybody to know. Let me announce it this evening at
the ball.
MAY
If you can persuade Mamma. But why should we change what is already settled?
[Archer has no answer for this that is appropriate for this time and place. May senses
his frustration and adds, smiling...]
MAY
But you can tell my cousin yourself. She remembers you.
ELLEN (Countess Olenska)
I remember we played together. Being here again makes me remember so much.
[She gestures out across the theatre]
ELLEN
I see everybody the same way, dressed in knickerbockers and pantalettes.
[Archers sits beside her]
ELLEN
You were horrid. You kissed me once behind a door. But it was your cousin Vandy,
the one who never looked at me, I was in love with.
ARCHER
Yes, you have been away a very long time.
ELLEN
Oh, centuries and centuries. So long I'm sure I'm dead and buried, and this dear
old place is heaven.
[As they end, the voice of the narrator fades up]
[In another box, Mrs. Julius Beaufort (Regina) draws up her opera cloak about her
shoulders. As she does this and leaves the box, we hear...]
NARRATOR
It invariably happened, as everything happened in those days, in the same way. As
usual, Mrs. Julius Beaufort appeared just before the Jewel Song and, again as usual,
rose at the end of the third act and disappeared. New York then knew that, a
half-hour later, her annual opera ball would begin.
[Street outside the theatre (14th Street) at night. A line of carriages drawn up in front
of the Academy of Music. Mrs. Beaufort climbs in a carriage at the front of the line and
drives away]
NARRATOR
Carriages waited at the curb for the entire performance. It was widely known in New
York, but never acknowledged, that Americans want to get away from amusement even
more quickly than they want to get to it.
[Ballroom at the Beaufort House]
NARRATOR
The Beauforts' house was one of the few in New York that possessed a ballroom. Such
a room, shuttered in darkness three hundred and sixty-four days of the year, was
felt to compensate for whatever was regrettable in the Beaufort past. Regina
Beaufort came from an old South Carolina family, but her husband Julius, who passed
for an Englishman, was known to have dissipated habits, a bitter tongue and
mysterious antecedents. His marriage assured him a social position, but not
necessarily respect.
[Ballroom at the Beaufort House during the ball. An orchestra plays and dancers swoop by.
Archer enters and hands his cape and hat to a servant, greets another guest and accepts
several pair of dancing gloves. Archer climbs the stairs and greets Regina Beaufort]
NARRATOR
The house had been boldly planned. Instead of squeezing through a narrow passage to
get to the ballroom one marched solemnly down a vista of enfiladed drawing rooms
seeing from afar the many-candled lusters reflected in the polished parquetry and
beyond that the depths of a conservatory where camellias and tree ferns arched their
