Screenplay

» by Jay Cocks.
Based on the novel by Edith Wharton.
[Transcript]

PART - II

[Theatre night in the Beaufort box. Everyone is chatting as
Archer enters the room]

LEFFERTS
It's fascinating. Every season the same play, the same scene, the
same effect onthe audience.

[Archer is making his greetings and Lefferts turns to him]

LEFFERTS
Remarkable isn't it, Newland?

ARCHER
These actors certainly are. They're even better than the case in
London.

BEAUFORT
You see this play even when you travel? I'd travel to get away
from it.

[Archer sits behind Ellen while Sillerton Jackson continues to
regale Regina Beaufort with details of the latest social news]

JACKSON
It was a reception at Mrs. Struthers'. Held on the Lord's day,
but with champagneand singing from the tabletops. People say
there was dancing.

REGINA
(a bit intrigued)
A real French Sunday, then.

[Ellen turns to Archer]

ELLEN
Do you think her lover will send her a box of yellow roses
tomorrow morning?

ARCHER
(surprised)
I was. . . I was thinking about that, too. The farewell scene. .
.

ELLEN
Yes, I know. It touches me as well.

ARCHER
Usually, I leave after that scene. To take the picture away with
me.

ELLEN
I had a letter from May. From St. Augustine.

ARCHER
They always winter there. Her mother's bronchitis.

ELLEN
And what do you do while May is away?

ARCHER
(a little defensive)
I do my work.

ELLEN
I do want you to know. What you advised me was right. Things can
be so difficultsometimes. . . And I'm so grateful.

[Montage]

NARRATOR
The next day, Newland Archer searched the city in vain for yellow
roses. From hisoffice he sent a note to Madame Olenska asking to
call that afternoon and requestinga reply by messenger. There was
no reply that day. Or the next. And when yellowroses were again
available, Archer passes them by. It was only on the third
daythat he heard from her, by post, from the van der Luydens'
country home.

[On a country road during the day]

ELLEN
"I ran away the day after I saw you at the play, and these kind
friends have takenme in. I wanted to be quiet and think things
over. I feel so safe here. Iwish. . . that you were with us.
Yours sincerely. . . "

[At the law office during the day]

NARRATOR
He had a still outstanding invitation from the Lefferts' for a
weekend on the Hudsonand he hoped it was not too late to reply.
Their house was not far from the van derLuydens.

[On a country road during the day. Archer is sees Ellen and
catches up to her]

ARCHER
I came to see what you were running away from.

ELLEN
I knew you'd come

ARCHER
That shows you wanted me to.

ELLEN
Cousin May wrote she asked you to take care of me.

ARCHER
I didn't need to be asked.

ELLEN
Why? Does that mean I'm so helpless and defenseless? Or that
women here are soblessed they never feel need?

ARCHER
What sort of need?

ELLEN
Please don't ask me. I don't speak your language.

[They walk past an old house with squat walls and small square
windows]

ELLEN
Henry left the old Patroon house open for me. I wanted to see it.

[Inside the Patroon House]

ARCHER
When you wrote me, you were unhappy.

ELLEN
Yes. But I can't feel unhappy when you're here.

ARCHER
I can't be here long.

ELLEN
I know. But I'm a little impulsive. I live in the moment when I'm
happy.

ARCHER
Ellen. If you really wanted me to come. . . if I'm really to help
you. . . you must tellme what you're running from.

[She doesn't answer. He keeps looking out the window. Then he
feels her, coming up behind him. Her arms are around his neck,
hugging him. He turns. . . and sees her as she really is, still
in the chair. He looks back out the window and sees Julius
Beaufort coming up the path to the house]

ARCHER
Ah!

[He laughs and Ellen quickly moves to his side. She looks out the
window and sees Beaufort. She steps back startled]

ARCHER
Is he what you were running from? Or what you expected?

ELLEN
I didn't know he was here.

[Archer walks to the front door and throws it open]

ARCHER
Hello, Beaufort!This way!Madame Olenska was expecting you.

[Beaufort enters with assurance, addressing his remarks to Ellen]

BEAUFORT
Well, you certainly led me a bit of a chase, making me come all
this was just totell you I'd found the perfect little house. It's
not on the market yet, so youmust take it at once.

[There is uncomfortable silence. Beaufort finally takes notice of
Archer]

BEAUFORT
Well, Archer. Rusticating?

[In the study at the Archer House at night. Archer is unpacking
books from a carton]

NARRATOR
That night he did not take the customary comfort in his monthly
shipment of booksfrom London. The taste of the usual was like
cinders in his mouth, and there weremoments when he felt as if he
were being buried alive under his future.

[In the bedroom at Ellen's house. Ellen is writing a note to
Archer]

ELLEN
"Newland. Come late tomorrow. I must explain to you. "

[In the study at the Archer House. Archer reads the note]

[In the garden at St. Augustine. Archer sees May sitting and
approaches]

MAY
Newland!Has anything happened?

ARCHER
Yes. I found I had to see you.

[Archer sits down and starts kissing her. His gentleness turns
more insistent. She responds at first, but then draws back, a
little startled]

ARCHER
What is it?

MAY
Nothing.

ARCHER
Tell me what you do all day.

MAY
(brightening)
Well, there are a few pleasant people from Philadelphia and
Baltimore who werepicnicking at the inn. The Merry's are planning
to lay out a lawn tennis court. . .

ARCHER
But I thought. . . I came here because I thought I could persuade
you to break awayfrom all that. To advance our engagement.

[He reached for her hand]

ARCHER
Don't you understand how much I want to marry you? Why should we
dream away anotheryear?

MAY
I'm not sure I do understand. Is it because you're not certain of
still feeling thesame way about me?

ARCHER
God, I. . . maybe. . . I don't know.

MAY
Is there someone else?

ARCHER
Someone else? Between you and me?

MAY
Let's talk frankly, Newland. Sometimes I've felt a difference in
you, especiallysince our engagement.

[He starts to protest. She hurries on]

MAY
If it's untrue then it won't hurt to talk about it. And if it's
true. . . whyshouldn't we talk about it now? You might have made
a mistake.

ARCHER
If I'd made some sort of mistake, would I be down here asking you
to hurry ourmarriage?

MAY
I don't know. You might. It would be one way to settle the
question. At Newport,two years ago, before we were. . . promised.
. . everyone said there was. . . someone elsefor you. I even saw
you sitting together with her once, I think. On a verandah,at a
dance. When she came back into the house, her face was sad, and I
felt sorryfor her. Even after, when we were engaged, I could see
how she looked.

ARCHER
Is that what you've been concerned about? That's long past.

MAY
Then is there something else?

ARCHER
Of course not.

MAY
(rushing on)
Whatever it may have been, Newland, I couldn't have my happiness
made out of a wrongto somebody else. We couldn't build a life on
a foundation like that. If promiseswere made. . . or pledges. . .
if you said something to the. . . the person we've spokenof. . .
if you feel in some way pledged to her. . . and there's any way
you can fulfillyour pledge. . . even by her getting a divorce. .
. Newland, don't give her up because ofme!

ARCHER
There are no pledges. There are no promises that matter.

[May looks as if a great weight had been taken from her]

ARCHER
That is all I've been trying to say. There is no one between us,
May. There isnothing between us. That is precisely my argument
for marrying quickly.

NARRATOR
He could feel her dropping back to inexpressive girlishness. Her
conscience hadbeen eased of its burden. It was wonderful, he
thought, how such depths of feelingcould co-exist with such an
absense of imagination.

[In the drawing room at Mrs. Mingott's House. Mrs. Mingott and
Archer are having tea and talking]

MRS. MINGOTT
And did you succeed?

ARCHER
No. But I'd still like to be married in April. With your help.

MRS. MINGOTT
Well, you're seeing the Mingott way. When I built this house the
family reacted asif I was moving to California. Now you're
challenging everyone.

ARCHER
Is this really so difficult?

MRS. MINGOTT
The entire family is difficult. Not one of them wants to be
different. And whenthey are different they end up like Ellen's
parents. Nomads. Continentalwanderers. Or like dear Medora,
dragging Ellen about after they died, lavishingher with an
expensive but incoherent education. Out of all of them, I don't
believethere's one that takes after me but my little Ellen.
(smiling)
You've got a quick eye. Why in the world didn't you marry her?

ARCHER
(laughs)
For one thing, she wasn't there to be married.

MRS. MINGOTT
No, to be sure. And she's still not. The Count, you know. He's
sent a letter.

ARCHER
No, I didn't know.

MRS. MINGOTT
Mr. Letterblair says the Count wants Ellen back. On her own
terms.

ARCHER
I don't believe it.

MRS. MINGOTT
The Count certainly does not defend himself. I will say that. And
Ellen would begiving up a great deal to stay here. There's her
old life. Gardens at Nice withterraces of roses. Jewels, of
course. Music and conversation. She says she goesunnoticed in
Europe, but I know that her portrait has been painted nine times.
Allthat, and the remorse of a guilty husband. Ellen says she
cares for none of it, butstill. These are things that must be
weighted.

ARCHER
I would rather see her dead.

MRS. MINGOTT
(shrewdly)
Would you? Would you really? We should remember marriage is
marriage. And Ellenis still a wife.

[Behind Mrs. Mingott, the dorrs open and Ellen enters]

MRS. MINGOTT
Ellen, see who's here.

ELLEN
Yes, I know.
(to Archer)
I went to see your mother to ask where you'd gone. Since you
never answered mynote.

MRS. MINGOTT
Because he was in such a rush to get married, I'm sure. Fresh off
the train andstraight here. He wants me to use all my influence,
just to marry his sweetheartsooner.

ELLEN
Well surely, Granny, between us we can persuade the Wellands to
do as he wishes.

MRS. MINGOTT
There, Newland, you see. Right to the quick of the problem. Like
me.
(to Ellen)
I told him he should have married you.

ELLEN
And what did he say?

MRS. MINGOTT
Oh, my darling, I leave you to find that out.

[Archer who has done his best to abide this teasing, now rises to
go]

[In the doorway at the Mingott House]

ARCHER
(quietly)
When can I see you?

[In the hallway at Ellen's house that evening. The maid opens the
door and takes Archer's coat. She hangs it and picks up a large
bouquet of crimson roses, with purple pansies at their base and
starts to carry them toward the drawing room]

ELLEN
Natasia, take those to that nice family down the street. And come
right back. TheStruthers' are sending a carriage for me at seven.

[She holds her hand out to Archer]

ELLEN
Who's ridiculous enough to send me a bouquet? I'm not going to a
ball. And I'm notengaged.

[In the drawing room at Ellen's house]

ELLEN
I'm sure Granny must have told you everything about me.

ARCHER
She did say you were used to all kinds of splendors we can't give
you here.

ELLEN
Well, I'll tell you. In almost everything she says there's
something true, andsomething untrue. Why? What has she been
telling you?

ARCHER
I think she believes you might go back to your husband. I think
she believes youmight at least consider it.

ELLEN
A lot of things have been believed of me. But if she thinks I
would consider it,that also means she would consider it for me.
As Granny is weighing you idea ofadvancing the marriage.

ARCHER
(under pressure)
May and I had a frank talk in Florida. Probably our first. She
wants a longengagement to give me time. . .

ELLEN
Time to give her up for another woman?

ARCHER
If I want to.

ELLEN
That's very noble.

ARCHER
Yes. But it's ridiculous.

ELLEN
Why? Because there is no other woman?

ARCHER
No. Because I don't mean to marry anyone else.

ELLEN
This other woman. . . does she love you, too?

ARCHER
There is no other woman. I mean, the person May was thinking of.
. . was never. . .
(slowly)
. . . she guessed the truth. There is another woman. But not the
one she thinks.

[He sits down beside her and takes her hands, unclasping them.
She gets up and moves away from him]

ELLEN
Don't make love to me. Too many people have done that.

ARCHER
I've never made love to you. But you are the woman I would have
married if it hadbeen possible for either of us.

ELLEN
Possible? You can say that when you're the one who's made it
impossible.

ARCHER
I've made it. . .

ELLEN
Isn't it you who made me give up divorcing? Didn't you talk to
me, here in thisroom, about sacrifice and sparing scandal because
my family was going to be yourfamily? And I did what you asked
me. For May's sake. And for yours.

ARCHER
But there were things in your husband's letter. . .

ELLEN
I had nothing to fear from that letter. Absolutely nothing. You
were just afraidof scandal for yourself, and for May.

[Ellen starts crying]

ARCHER
Ellen. No. Nothing's done that can't be undone. I'm still free.
You can be, too.

[He's holding her. He kisses her and she kisses him back
passionately. She breaks away and they stare at each other. Then
she shakes her head]

ARCHER
No!Everything is different. Do you see me marrying May now?

ELLEN
Would you ask her that question? Would you?

ARCHER
I have to ask her. It's too late to do anything else.

ELLEN
You say that because it's easy, not because it's true.

ARCHER
This has changed everything

ELLEN
No. The good things can't change. All that you've done for me,
Newland, that Inever knew. Going to the van der Luydens because
people refused to meet me. Announcing you engagement at the ball
so there would be two families standing behindme instead of one.
I never understood how deadful people thought I was.
(She sees him looking at her questioningly)

ELLEN
Granny blurted it out one day. I was stupid, I never thought. New
York seemed sokind and glad to see me. But there was no one as
kind as you. They never knew whatit meant to be tempted. But you
did. You understood. You hated happiness broughtby disloyalty and
cruelty and indifference. I'd never known that before, and
it'sbetter than anything I've known.

[She speaks in a very low voice. Suddenly he kneels. The tip of
her satin shoe shows under her dress. He kisses it. She bends
over him]

ELLEN
Newland. You couldn't be happy if it meant being cruel. If we act
any other wayI'll be making you act against what I love in you
most. And I can't go back to thatway of thinking. Don't you see?
I can't love you unless I give you up.

[Archer springs to his feet]

ARCHER
And Beaufort, with his orchids? Can you love him? (furious)
May is ready to give me up!

ELLEN
(quietly)
Three days after you pleaded with her to advance your engagement
she will give youup?

ARCHER
She refused!That gives me the right. . .

ELLEN
The right? The same kind of ugly right as my husband claims in
his letters?

ARCHER
No, of course not!But if we do this now. . . afterward, it will
only be worse foreveryone if we. . .

ELLEN
(almost screaming)
No, no, no!

[They look at each other for a moment more. Then Ellen picks up a
bell and rings for the maid. The maid enters carrying Ellen's
cloak and hat, and a telegram]

ELLEN
I won't be going out tonight after all.

ARCHER
(sarcastic)
Please don't sacrifice. I have no right to keep you from your
friends.

MAID
(in Italian)
This was delivered.

[Ellen takes the envelope, reads it and hands it to Archer]

[In the gardens at St. Augustine]

MAY
"Granny's telegram was successful. Papa and Mama agreed to
marriage after Easter. Only a month? !I will telegraph Newland.
I'm too happy for words and love youdearly. Your grateful cousin
May. "

[In the drawing room at Ellen's house that night. Archer reads
the telegram and crumples it up in disappointment]

[At the photographer's studio. May is posing for pictures]

NARRATOR
There had been wild rumors right up to the wedding day, that Mrs.
Mingott wouldactually attend the ceremony. It was known that she
had sent a carpenter to measurethe front pew in case it might be
altered to accomodate her. But this idea, likethe great lady
herself, proved to be unwieldy, and she settled for giving
thewedding breakfast. The Countess Olenska sent her regrets - she
was travelling withan aunt - but gave the bride and groom an
exquisite piece of old lace. Two elderlyaunts in Rhinebeck
offered a honeymoon cottage, and since it was thought
"veryEnglish" to have a country-house on loan, their offer was
accepted. When the houseproved suddenly uninhabitable, however,
Henry van der Luyden stepped in to offer anold cottage on his
property nearby. May accepted the offer as a surprise for
herhusband. She had never seen the house, but her cousin Ellen
had mentioned it once. She had said it was the only house in
America where she could imagine beingperfectly happy. They
travelled to the expected places, which May had never seen. In
London, Archer ordered his clothes, and they went to the National
Gallery, andsometimes to the theatre.

[In a carriage on the street at night. May is close to Archer on
the seat, holding his arm. She has a new attitude of easy
intimacy with him]

MAY
I hope I don't look ridiculous. I've never dined out in London.

ARCHER
Englishwomen dress just like everybody else in the evening, don't
they?

MAY
How can you even ask that, when they're always at the theatre in
old ball-dressesand bare heads.

ARCHER
Well perhaps they save their new dresses for home.

MAY
Then I shouldn't have worn this?

ARCHER
No. You look fine.
(meaning it)
Quite beautiful.

NARRATOR
In Paris, she ordered her clothes. There were trunks of dresses
from Worth. Theyvisited the Tuileries.

[At the sculptor's studio the next day. Archer watches as the
sculptor Rochee models May's folded hands in marble. May looks up
at her husband and smiles]

NARRATOR
Rochee modelled May's hands in marble. And occasionally they
dined out.

[In the dining room at Paris House at night. They are having a
small formal dinner. May is holding her own, charming everyone.
Archer is having a conversation with a fine-boned man whose face
is distinguished by a carefully nurtured mustache]

NARRATOR
Archer had gradually reverted to his old inherited ideas about
marriage. It wasless trouble to conform with tradition. There was
no use trying to emancipate awife who hadn't the dimmest notion
that she was not free.

[In the carriage on the street. Archer and May are riding home
from the dinner]

ARCHER
We had an awfully good talk. Interesting fellow. We talked about
books and things. I asked him to dinner.

MAY
The Frenchman? I didn't have much chance to talk to him, but
wasn't he a littlecommon?

ARCHER
Common? I thought he was clever.

MAY
I suppose I shouldn't have known if he was clever.

ARCHER
(quickly, resigned)
Then I won't ask him to dine.

NARRATOR
With a chill he knew that, in future, many problems would be
solved for him in thissame way.

[The carriage moves down a boulevard of flickering lamps]

NARRATOR
The first six months of marriage were usually said to be the
hardest, and afterthat, he thought, they would have pretty nearly
finished polishing down all therough edges. But May's pressure
was already wearing down the very roughness he mostwanted to
keep. As for the madness with Madame Olenska, Archer trained
himself toremember it as the last of his discarded experiments.
She remained in his memorysimply as the most plaintive and
poignant of a line of ghosts.

[On the Beaufort lawn in Newport. This is the Beauforts' summer
cottage a year and a half later. There's a row of men and women
standing against a tent. May comes out of the tent and walks past
a row of people to an opening. A little later, May is seen slowly
raising a bow and arrow, taking careful aim and letting go. Her
movements have a classic grace. The crowd applauds her shot. Two
of the spectators, Larry Lefferts and Julius Beaufort, watch May
admiringly]

LEFFERTS
She's very deft.

BEAUFORT
Yes. But that's the only kind of target she'll ever hit.

[Archer is standing a little in front of them. He reacts angrily
to Beaufort's remark, but says nothing. Across the lawn, May
makes her final bull's-eye. Archer starts across to join her. May
is receiving a winner's pin from a club official as a
photographer snaps her picture]

NARRATOR
No one could ever be jealous of May's triumphs. She managed to
give the feelingthat she would have been just as serene without
them.

[May takes Archer's arm as they walk across the lawn together]

NARRATOR
But what if all her calm, her niceness, were just a negation, a
curtain dropped infront of an emptiness? Archer felt he had never
yet lifted that curtain.

[On Narraganset Avenue in Newport. May and Archer are in an open
carriage]

MAY
Has Regina Beaufort been here at all this summer?

ARCHER
I don't know. There's a great deal of gossip. I expect Beaufort
will bring AnnieRing here any day.

MAY
Not even he would dare that!

ARCHER
He's reckless in everything. Even his railway speculations are
turning bad. But hejust answers every rumor with a fresh
extravagance.

MAY
I heard he gave Regina pearls worth half a million.

ARCHER
He had no choice.

[At the Mingott House in Newport. May is showing Mrs. Mingott
the pin she won in the archery contest
an arrow with a diamond tip, pinned to the front of her linen
blouse]

MRS. MINGOTT
Quite stunning. It's Julius Beaufort who donates the club's
prizes, isn't it. Thislooks like him. Of course. And it will make
quite an heirloom, my dear. Youshould leave it to your eldest
daughter.

[In the drawing room of the Mingott Newport cottage. May blushes
and Mrs. Mingott pinches her arm teasingly]

MRS. MINGOTT
What's the matter, aren't there going to be any daughters? Only
boys? What, can'tI say that either? Look at her, blushing!

[Archer laughs and Mrs. Mingott calls out. . . ]

MRS. MINGOTT
Ellen!Ellen, are you upstairs?

[Archer is startled at the mention of Ellen]

MRS. MINGOTT
She's over from Portsmouth, spending the day with me. It's such a
nuisance. Shejust won't stay in Newport, insists on putting up
with those. . . what's their name. . . Blenkers. But I gave up
arguing with young people about fifty years ago. . . Ellen!

MAID
I'm sorry, ma'am, Miss Ellen's not in the house.

MRS. MINGOTT
She's left?

MAID
I saw her going down the shore path.

[Mrs. Mingott turns to Archer]

MRS. MINGOTT
Run down and fetch her, like a good grandson. May can tell me all
the gossip aboutJulius Beaufort. Go ahead. I know she'll want to
see you both.

[On the shore path]

NARRATOR
He had heard her name often enough during the year and a half
since they had lastmet. He was even familiar with the main
incidents of her life. But he heard allthese accounts with
detachment, as if listening to reminiscences of someone longdead.
But the past had come again into the present, as in those newly
discoveredcaverns in Tuscany, where children had lit bunches of
straw and seen old imagesstaring from the wall.

[Archer walks down the path and sees the pier and house in front
of him. He sees a woman with her back to the shore, leaning
against a rail. He stops, unable to go on. It's Ellen. She looks
out to sea, at the bay furrowed with yachts and sailboats and
fishing craft. He does not move. Ellen does not turn. A sailboat
glides through the channel between Lime Rock lighthouse and the
shore]

NARRATOR
He gave himself a single chance. She must turn before the
sailboat crosses the LimeRock light. Then he would go to her.

[He looks to the boat. It glides out on the receding tide between
the lighthouse and the shore. He watches as the boat passes the
lighthouse. He looks at Ellen, she has not turned. Archer walks
away]

[Outside the Mingott House]

MAY
I'm sorry you didn't find her. But I've heard she's so changed.

ARCHER
Changed?

MAY
So indifferent to her old friends. Summering in Portsmouth,
moving to Washington. Sometimes I think we've always bored her. I
wonder if she wouldn't be happier withher husband after all.

ARCHER
(laughs)
I don't think I've ever heard you be cruel before.

[Archer helps her into the carriage]

MAY
Cruel?

ARCHER
Even demons don't think people are happier in hell.

MAY
(placidly)
Then she shouldn't have married abroad.

[She starts to take the reins of the carriage. Archer lifts them
from her]

ARCHER
Let me.

[At the Welland House in Newport the next morning. Archer, Mrs.
Archer, Janey, Mrs. Welland and May are having breakfast]

MRS. WELLAND
The Blenkers. A party for the Blenkers?

JANEY
Who are they?

MAY
The Portsmouth people, I think. The ones Countess Olenska is
staying with.

MRS. ARCHER
"Professor and Mrs. Emerson Sillerton request the pleasure. . .
Wednesday afternoonclub. . . at 3 o'clock punctually. To meet
Mrs. and the the Misses Blenker. RedGables, Catherine Street. "I
don't think we can decline.

JANEY
I don't see why, really. He's an archaeologist and he lives here
even in winter. He's always taking his poor wife to tombs in the
Yucatan instead of to Paris. He'sgot a house full of long-haired
men and short-haired women, and. . .

MRS. ARCHER
And he is Sillerton Jackson's cousin.

JANEY
(chastened)
Of course.

MRS. WELLAND
Some of us will have to go.

MAY
I'll go over. And, Janey, why don't you come with me. I'm sure
Cousin Ellen willbe there. It will give you a chance to see her.
(to Archer)
Newland, you can find some way to spend the afternoon, can't you?

ARCHER
Oh I think for a change I'll just save it instead of spending it.
Maybe drive tothe farm to see about a new horse for the brougham.

[At the Blenker House. Archer drives up, stops and ties up his
team. He walks up to the house. As he gets closer, he sees a box
garden, and something pink just beyond it. It's a pink parasol.
He picks it up and lifts the handle close to his face to smell
its scent. He hears someone coming behind him, closing in
anticipation. He waits for Ellen's touch but hears only a voice
behind him. . . ]

KATIE BLENKER
Hello?

[His eyes open and he turns and sees Katie Blenker, an adolescent
girl with open, friendly curiosity. She looks, for an instant,
familiar
Archer thinks that he has been surprised by May]

KATIE BLENKER
I'm sorry, did you ring, I've been asleep in the hammock. . .

ARCHER
I didn't mean to disturb you. Are you Miss Blenker? I'm Newland
Archer.

KATIE
I've heard so much about you.

ARCHER
I came up the island to see about a new horse, and I thought I'd
call. But thehouse seemed empty. . .

KATIE
It is empty. They're all at the party. The one the Sillertons are
giving for us. Didn't you know?

[He keeps looking at her, not knowing what to say]

KATIE
Everyone's there but me, with my fever, and Countess Olenska. . .
oh, you found myparasol!

[She takes it from his hand]

KATIE
It's my best one. It's from the Cameroons.

ARCHER
(trying to be casual)
The Countess was called away?

KATIE
A telegram came from Boston. She said she might be gone for two
days. I do lovethe way she does her hair, don't you? It reminds
me of Sir Walter Scott.

ARCHER
(interrupting her)
You don't know. . . I'm sorry. . . I've got to be in Boston
tomorrow. You wouldn't knowwhere she was staying?