The Farewell Performance — The Age of Innocence

May and Newland host an elaborate farewell dinner for Ellen before she sails to Europe, a formal social ritual that serves multiple hidden purposes. The evening represents the pinnacle of New York society's sophisticated control mechanisms, everyone knows about Newland and Ellen's connection, but by celebrating Ellen's departure, they collectively erase the scandal without ever acknowledging it existed. Newland realizes he's been under constant observation and that his social circle has orchestrated Ellen's exile while maintaining the fiction that nothing improper ever happened.

The dinner is both Ellen's send-off and Newland's public rehabilitation. During the evening, Newland and Ellen exchange only polite pleasantries, both understanding this is their final goodbye. The chapter's devastating climax comes when May reveals she's pregnant, news she had already shared with Ellen weeks earlier, before Ellen made her decision to leave.

This revelation transforms everything Newland thought he understood about recent events. May's pregnancy wasn't just a personal development; it was a strategic disclosure that helped convince Ellen to step aside. The timing suggests May suspected or knew about the affair and used her condition as both weapon and shield.

Newland realizes he's been outmaneuvered not just by society, but by his own wife, who has proven far more perceptive and calculating than he ever imagined. The chapter shows how personal desires become casualties when they conflict with social expectations and family obligations.