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"Ah--" said Mr van der Luyden, drawing a deep breath

There was a silence during which the tick of the rew as loud as the booun Archer conteures, seated side by side in a kind of viceregal rigidity, mouthpieces of some remote ancestral authority which fate compelled them to wield, when they would soinvisible weeds out of the perfect lawns of Skuytercliff, and playing Patience together in the evenings

Mr van der Luyden was the first to speak

"You really think this is due to some--some intentional interference of Lawrence Lefferts's?" he enquired, turning to Archer

"I' it rather harder than usual lately--if cousin Louisa won'trather a stiff affair with the poste, or soins to suspect anything, and he's afraid of trouble, he gets up a fuss of this kind, to shofully moral he is, and talks at the top of his voice about the i his wife toMada-rod; I've seen hi often before"

"The LEFFERTSES!--" said Mrs van der Luyden

"The LEFFERTSES!--" echoed Mrs Archer "What would uncle Eg on anybody's social position? It shohat Society has come to"

"We'll hope it has not quite come to that," said Mr van der Luyden firhed Mrs Archer

But instantly she became aware of her mistake The van der Luydens were morbidly sensitive to any criticism of their secluded existence They were the arbiters of fashion, the Court of last Appeal, and they knew it, and bowed to their fate But being shy and retiring persons, with no natural inclination for their part, they lived as much as possible in the sylvan solitude of Skuytercliff, and when they came to town, declined all invitations on the plea of Mrs van der Luyden's health

Newland Archer came to his mother's rescue "Everybody in New York knohat you and cousin Louisa represent That's why Mrs Mingott felt she ought not to allow this slight on Countess Olenska to pass without consulting you"

Mrs van der Luyden glanced at her husband, who glanced back at her

"It is the principle that I dislike," said Mr van der Luyden "As long as a member of a well-known family is backed up by that family it should be considered--final"