The Age of Innocence

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

costly foliage over seats of black and gold bamboo. But only by actually passing

through the crimson drawing room could one see "Return of Spring," the

much-discussed nude by Bougeureau, which Beaufort had had the audacity to hang in

plain sight. Archer had not gone back to his club after the Opera, as young men

usually did, but had walked for some distance up Fifth Avenue before turning back in

the direction of the Beauforts'. He was definitely afraid that the family might be

going too far and would bring the Countess Olenska. He was more than ever

determined to "see the thing through," but he felt less chivalrously inclined to

defend the Countess after their brief talk at the opera.

[Archer enters the ballroom. The first man he sees is Larry Lefferts, deep in

conversation with an attractive young woman]

NARRATOR

On the whole, Lawrence Lefferts was the foremost authority on "form" in New York.

On the question of pumps versus patent-leather Oxfords, his authority had never been

disputed.

[Archer continues through the party. Holding court and amusing a group of older women is

Sillerton Jackson]

NARRATOR

Old Mr. Sillerton Jackson was as great an authority on "family" as Lawrence Lefferts

was on "form." In addition to a forest of family trees, he carried a register of

the scandals and mysteries that had smouldered under the unruffled surface of

society for the past fifty years.

[Archer continues moving throught he party. Julius Beaufort crosses in front him,

conversing with a guest]

GUEST

(in mid-discussion)

But I didn't see you there this evening. Madame Nilsson was in such splendid voice.

BEAUFORT

(snide)

The usual splendor, I'm sure.

NARRATOR

Julius Beaufort had speedily made a name for himself in the world of affairs. His

secret, all were agreed, was the way he carried things off. His social obligations

and the rumors that perpetually swirled around him, all were borne easily before

him.

[May Welland is surrounded by gleeful friends who are obviously reacting to her engagement

announcement. Archer and May are in another room behind a tall screen of ferns and

camellias. Archer kisses May's hand]

MAY

You see, I told all my friends. Just as you asked.

ARCHER

Yes, I couldn't wait. Only wish it hadn't had to be at a ball.

MAY