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He could not say that he had been mistaken in his choice, for she had fulfilled all that he had expected It was undoubtedly gratifying to be the husband of one of the handso married women in New York, especially when she was also one of the sweetest-tempered and most reasonable of wives; and Archer had never been insensible to such advantages As for the momentary e, he had trained hiard it as the last of his discarded experiments The idea that he could ever, in his senses, have drea the Countess Olenska had become almost unthinkable, and she renant of a line of ghosts

But all these abstractions and eli place, and he supposed that was one of the reasons why the busy animated people on the Beaufort lawn shocked hirave-yard

He heard a murmur of skirts beside hi-roomAs usual, she was extraordinarily festooned and bedizened, with a lis of faded gauze, and a little black velvet parasol on a carved ivory handle absurdly balanced over her er hatbrim

"My dear Newland, I had no idea that you and May had arrived! You yourself came only yesterday, you say? Ah, business--business--professional dutiesI understand Many husbands, I know, find it impossible to join their wives here except for the week-end" She cocked her head on one side and languished at hi sacrifice, as I used often to remind my Ellen--"

Archer's heart stopped with the queer jerk which it had given once before, and which seemed suddenly to slam a door between himself and the outer world; but this break of continuity must have been of the briefest, for he presently heard Medora answering a question he had apparently found voice to put

"No, I a here, but with the Blenkers, in their delicious solitude at Portsh to send his faht have at least a glio back to rural life The Blenkers, dear original beings, have hired a priather about thehtly beneath her protecting briathon Carver is holding a series of Inner Thought ay scene of worldly pleasure--but then I have always lived on contrasts! To me the only death is monotony I always say to Ellen: Beware of monotony; it's thethrough a phase of exaltation, of abhorrence of the world You know, I suppose, that she has declined all invitations to stay at Newport, even with her grandott? I could hardly persuade her to come with me to the Blenkers', if you will believe it! The life she leads is morbid, unnatural Ah, if she had only listened to me when it was still possibleWhen the door was still openBut shall we go down and watch this absorbing match? I hear your May is one of the competitors"