The Age of Innocence Ch. 30: The Weight of

Summary

May comes down late to dinner, wan beneath her heaped coils of hair, and asks what became of him: Ellen arrived at Granny's alone. Archer says he had letters to write. Only then does he remember that May called over the stairs that morning to meet him at her grandmother's, and that he called back a cheery "Yes!" and forgot. He feels guilty and irritated at once, weary of a tepid honeymoon with all its demands and none of its passion. May, trained to hide her wounds under a Spartan smile, never mentions Ellen at dinner, which he finds a relief and somehow ominous.

In the library he reads Michelet so that she will not ask him to read poetry aloud, and she embroiders a cushion for his sofa with hands made for riding and rowing. Watching the betrothal sapphire above her wedding ring, he sees that she will never surprise him again. He throws up the window and leans into the icy night. "You'll catch your death," May says, and the phrase hands him a wild thought: what if she died, young and healthy as she is, and set him free? She sees something strange in his eyes. He lays his hand on her hair, says "Poor May!", and turns it into a joke about windows.

Six or seven days later old Catherine sends for him alone. Ellen will stay with her on a proper allowance, the family will fight it, and Archer, as Letterblair's partner, must fight them for her. He sinks into the dangerous sweetness of security: the plan he had nerved himself for can wait. Then she tells him Ellen has gone out in her carriage to visit Regina Beaufort. When old Catherine called Regina the wife of a scoundrel, Ellen answered, "and so am I." Archer bends and presses his lips to the little hand on his. The old lady cackles, asks whose hand he thought he was kissing, and sends him off with her love to May and an order to say nothing of their talk.

In this chapter:Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Questioning the Relief of Delay

Think of the last time a decision you dreaded was suddenly put off, and how good the reprieve felt. When old Catherine says Ellen will stay in New York, Archer's resolve to follow her collapses, and he sinks into the dangerous sweetness of security, reading her choice as an answer meant for him.

This week, when a hard choice gets postponed, write down what you will decide and by what date, so the delay does not decide for you.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: May Welland

May never speaks out her grievances, though Archer suspects her of many. Her silence is not emptiness. It is her family's house style, carried into a marriage. When he throws open the window and imagines her dead, she only asks him to shut it before he catches his death. She keeps the room, and the marriage, at her chosen temperature.

Continue this thoughtThe Defence Breaks in the Carriage and at the Window

Coming Up in Chapter 31

Walking home from old Catherine's, Archer remembers the plan he had nerved himself for: to join Ellen on her train to Washington, or as far as Japan, and leave May a note. Now he sees the part ahead as one long lie. At his corner he walks on, towards the dark Beaufort house, where Mrs Mingott's carriage waits at the door.

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Chapter 30

The Weight of Unspoken Truths

That evening when Archer came down before dinner he found the drawing-room empty. He and May were dining alone, all the family engagements having been postponed since Mrs. Manson Mingott's illness; and as May was the more punctual of the two he was surprised that she had not preceded him. He knew that she was at home, for while he dressed he had heard her moving about in her room; and he wondered what had delayed her. He had fallen into the way of dwelling on such conjectures as a means of tying his thoughts fast to reality. Sometimes he…

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The Weight of Unspoken Truths

Summary

Why This Matters