"Here are the letters, sirIf you wish, I'll see...
"Here are the letters, sirIf you wish, I'll see Madame Olenska," he said in a constrained voice

"Thank you—thank you, MrCome and dine with me tonight if you're free, and we'll go into the matter afterward: in case you wish to call on our client tomorrow

Newland Archer walked straight home again that afternoonIt was a winter evening of transparent clearness, with an innocent young moon above the house-tops; and he wanted to fill his soul's lungs with the pure radiance, and not exchange a word with any one till he and MrLetterblair were closeted together after dinnerIt was impossible to decide otherwise than he had done: he must see Madame Olenska himself rather than let her secrets be bared to other eyesA great wave of compassion had swept away his indifference and impatience: she stood before him as an exposed and pitiful figure, to be saved at all costs from farther wounding herself in her mad plunges against fate

He remembered what she had told him of MrsWelland's request to be spared whatever was "unpleasant" in her history, and winced at the thought that it was perhaps this attitude of mind which kept the New York air so pure"Are we only Pharisees after all?" he wondered, puzzled by the effort to reconcile his instinctive disgust at human vileness with his equally instinctive pity for human frailty

For chanel jumbo the first time he perceived how elementary his own principles had always beenHe passed for a young man who had not been afraid of risks, and he knew that his secret love-affair with poor silly MrsThorley Rushworth had not been too secret to invest him with a becoming air of adventureRushworth was "that kind of woman"; foolish, vain, clandestine by nature, and far more attracted by the secrecy and peril of the affair than by such charms and qualities as he possessedWhen the fact dawned on him it nearly broke his heart, but now it seemed the redeeming feature of the caseThe affair, in short, had been of the kind that most of the young men of his age had been through, and emerged from with calm consciences and an undisturbed belief in the abysmal distinction between the women one loved and respected and those one enjoyed—and pitiedIn this view they were sedulously abetted by their mothers, aunts and other elderly female relatives, who all shared MrsArcher's belief that when "such things happened" it was undoubtedly foolish of the man, but somehow always criminal of the womanAll the elderly ladies whom Archer knew regarded any woman who loved imprudently as necessarily unscrupulous and designing, and mere simple-minded man as powerless in her clutchesThe only thing to do was to persuade him, as early as possible, to marry a nice gucci new bag girl, and then trust to her to look after him

In the complicated old European communities, Archer began to guess, love-problems might be less simple and less easily classifiedRich and idle and ornamental societies must produce many more such situations; and there might even be one in which a woman naturally sensitive and aloof would yet, from the force of circumstances, from sheer defencelessness and loneliness, be drawn into a tie inexcusable by conventional standards

On reaching home he wrote a line to the Countess Olenska, asking at what hour of the next day she could receive him, and despatched it by a messenger-boy, who returned presently with a word to the effect that she was going to Skuytercliff the next morning to stay over Sunday with the van der Luydens, but that he would find her alone that evening after dinnerThe note was written on a rather untidy half-sheet, without date or address, but her hand was firm and freeHe was amused at the idea of her week-ending in the stately solitude of Skuytercliff, but immediately afterward felt that there, of all places, she would most feel the chill of minds rigorously averted from the "unpleasant



He was at MrLetterblair's punctually at seven, glad of the pretext for excusing himself soon after dinnerHe had formed his own opinion from the papers entrusted to omega olympic watch him, and did not especially want to go into the matter with his senior partnerLetterblair was a widower, and they dined alone, copiously and slowly, in a dark shabby room hung with yellowing prints of "The Death of Chatham" and "The Coronation of Napoleon On the sideboard, between fluted Sheraton knife-cases, stood a decanter of Haut Brion, and another of the old Lanning port (the gift of a client), which the wastrel Tom Lanning had sold off a year or two before his mysterious and discreditable death in San Francisco—an incident less publicly humiliating to the family than the sale of the cellar

After a velvety oyster soup came shad and cucumbers, then a young broiled turkey with corn fritters, followed by a canvas-back with currant jelly and a celery mayonnaiseLetterblair, who lunched on a sandwich and tea, dined deliberately and deeply, and insisted on his guest's doing the sameFinally, when the closing rites had been accomplished, the cloth was removed, cigars were lit, and MrLetterblair, leaning back in his chair and pushing the port westward, said, spreading his back agreeably to the coal fire behind him: "The whole family are against a divorce

Archer instantly felt himself on the other side of the argument"But why, sir? If there ever was a case—"

"Well—what's the use? SHE'S here—he's there; the Atlantic's chanel necklace between themShe'll never get back a dollar more of her money than what he's voluntarily returned to her: their damned heathen marriage settlements take precious good care of thatAs things go over there, Olenski's acted generously: he might have turned her out without a penny

The young man knew this and was silent

"I understand, though," MrLetterblair continued, "that she attaches no importance to the moneyTherefore, as the family say, why not let well enough alone?"

Archer had gone to the house an hour earlier in full agreement with MrLetterblair's view; but put into words by this selfish, well-fed and supremely indifferent old man it suddenly became the Pharisaic voice of a society wholly absorbed in barricading itself against the unpleasant

"I think that's for her to decide

"H'm—have you considered the consequences if she decides for divorce?"

"You mean the threat in her husband's letter? What weight would that carry? It's no more than the vague charge of an angry blackguard

"Yes; but it might make some unpleasant talk if he really defends the suit

"Unpleasant—!" said Archer explosivelyLetterblair looked at him from under enquiring eyebrows, and the young man, aware of the uselessness of trying to explain what was in his mind, bowed acquiescently while his senior continued: "Divorce is always omega watches for sale unplea