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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
NARRATOR
Archer had gradually reverted to his old inherited ideas about marriage. It was
less trouble to conform with tradition. There was no use trying to emancipate a
wife who hadn't the dimmest notion that she was not free.
[In the carriage on the street. Archer and May are riding home from the dinner]
ARCHER
We had an awfully good talk. Interesting fellow. We talked about books and things.
I asked him to dinner.
MAY
The Frenchman? I didn't have much chance to talk to him, but wasn't he a little
common?
ARCHER
Common? I thought he was clever.
MAY
I suppose I shouldn't have known if he was clever.
ARCHER
(quickly, resigned)
Then I won't ask him to dine.
NARRATOR
With a chill he knew that, in future, many problems would be solved for him in this
same way.
[The carriage moves down a boulevard of flickering lamps]
NARRATOR
The first six months of marriage were usually said to be the hardest, and after
that, he thought, they would have pretty nearly finished polishing down all the
rough edges. But May's pressure was already wearing down the very roughness he most
wanted to keep. As for the madness with Madame Olenska, Archer trained himself to
remember it as the last of his discarded experiments. She remained in his memory
simply as the most plaintive and poignant of a line of ghosts.
[On the Beaufort lawn in Newport. This is the Beauforts' summer cottage a year and a half
later. There's a row of men and women standing against a tent. May comes out of the tent
and walks past a row of people to an opening. A little later, May is seen slowly raising
a bow and arrow, taking careful aim and letting go. Her movements have a classic grace.
The crowd applauds her shot. Two of the spectators, Larry Lefferts and Julius Beaufort,
watch May admiringly]
LEFFERTS
She's very deft.
BEAUFORT
Yes. But that's the only kind of target she'll ever hit.
[Archer is standing a little in front of them. He reacts angrily to Beaufort's remark,
but says nothing. Across the lawn, May makes her final bull's-eye. Archer starts across
to join her. May is receiving a winner's pin from a club official as a photographer snaps
her picture]
NARRATOR
No one could ever be jealous of May's triumphs. She managed to give the feeling
that she would have been just as serene without them.
[May takes Archer's arm as they walk across the lawn together]
NARRATOR
But what if all her calm, her niceness, were just a negation, a curtain dropped in
front of an emptiness? Archer felt he had never yet lifted that curtain.
[On Narraganset Avenue in Newport. May and Archer are in an open carriage]
MAY
Has Regina Beaufort been here at all this summer?
ARCHER
I don't know. There's a great deal of gossip. I expect Beaufort will bring Annie
Ring here any day.
MAY
Not even he would dare that!
ARCHER
He's reckless in everything. Even his railway speculations are turning bad. But he
just answers every rumor with a fresh extravagance.
MAY
I heard he gave Regina pearls worth half a million.
ARCHER
He had no choice.
[At the Mingott House in Newport. May is showing Mrs. Mingott the pin she won in the
archery contest: an arrow with a diamond tip, pinned to the front of her linen blouse]
MRS. MINGOTT
Quite stunning. It's Julius Beaufort who donates the club's prizes, isn't it. This
looks like him. Of course. And it will make quite an heirloom, my dear. You
should leave it to your eldest daughter.
[In the drawing room of the Mingott Newport cottage. May blushes and Mrs. Mingott pinches
her arm teasingly]
MRS. MINGOTT
What's the matter, aren't there going to be any daughters? Only boys? What, can't
I say that either? Look at her, blushing!
[Archer laughs and Mrs. Mingott calls out...]
MRS. MINGOTT
Ellen! Ellen, are you upstairs?
[Archer is startled at the mention of Ellen]
MRS. MINGOTT
She's over from Portsmouth, spending the day with me. It's such a nuisance. She
just won't stay in Newport, insists on putting up with those...what's their name...
Blenkers. But I gave up arguing with young people about fifty years ago...Ellen!
MAID
I'm sorry, ma'am, Miss Ellen's not in the house.
MRS. MINGOTT
She's left?
MAID
I saw her going down the shore path.
[Mrs. Mingott turns to Archer]
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