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Of course you know alreadyabout May and me, he said, answering her look with a shy laugh. She scolded me for not giving you the news last night at the Opera: I had her orders to tell you that we were engagedbut I couldnt, in that crowd. The smile passed from Countess Olenskas eyes to her lips: she looked younger, more like the bold brown Ellen Mingott of his boyhood. Of course I know; yes. And Im so glad. But one doesnt tell such things first in a crowd. The ladies were on the threshold and she held out her hand. Good-bye; come and see me some day, she said, still looking at Archer. In the carriage, on the way down Fifth Avenue, they talked pointedly of Mrs. Mingott, of her age, her spirit, and all her wonderful attributes. No one alluded to Ellen Olenska; but Archer knew that Mrs. Welland was thinking: Its a mistake for Ellen to be seen, the very day after her arrival, parading up Fifth Avenue at the crowded hour with Julius Beaufort and the young man himself mentally added: And she ought to know that a man whos just engaged doesnt spend his time calling on married women. But I daresay in the set shes lived in they dothey never do anything else. And, in spite of the cosmopolitan views on which he prided himself, he thanked heaven that he was a New Yorker, and about to ally himself with one of his own kind. |
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