About this story
You play Newland Archer, engaged to May Welland and perfectly satisfied about it until May's cousin returns from a bad European marriage and receives you in a drawing room arranged for talking rather than display. Eighteen chapters in which almost nothing happens aloud and everything is settled anyway.
Who you’ll meet
Ellen Olenska, with the opera boxes turned her way.
How it opens
The January audience glittered beyond the stage, and every raised glass seemed to inspect a neighbor.
Lawrence LeffertsThe tenor has one more season, if no one listens closely.
Across the horseshoe, May sat between her mother and aunt with lilies-of-the-valley heaped upon her white lap.
Sillerton JacksonYou are just late enough; Miss Welland has noticed.
Lawrence LeffertsThe club box may now attend the house instead of the opera.
Choose
May is worth crossing the house to see.
The music kept me later than fashion did.