The dinner was a somewhat formidable business.Dining with the van der Luydens was at best no light matter,and dining there with a Duke who was their cousin was almost a religious solemnity. It pleased Archer to think that only an old New Yorker could perceive the shade of difference (to New York) between being merely a Duke and being the van der Luydens' Duke. New York took stray noblemen calmly, and even (except in the Struthers set) with a certain distrustful hauteur; but when they presented such credentials as these they were received with an old-fashioned cordiality that they would have been greatly mistaken in ascribing solely to their standing in Debrett. It was for just such distinctions that the young man cherished his old New York even while he smiled at it.
The van der Luydens had done their best to emphasise the importance of the occasion. The du Lac Sevres and the Trevenna George II plate were out; so was the van der Luyden "Lowestoft" (East India Company) and the Dagonet Crown Derby. Mrs. van der Luyden looked more than ever like a Cabanel, and Mrs. Archer, in her grandmother's seed-pearls and emeralds, reminded her son of an Isabey miniature. All the ladies had on their handsomest jewels, but it was characteristic of the house and the occasion that these were mostly in rather heavy old-fashioned settings; and old Miss Lanning, who had been persuaded to come, actually wore her mother's cameos and a Spanish blonde shawl.
The Countess Olenska was the only young woman at the dinner;yet, as Archer scanned the smooth plump elderly faces between their diamond necklaces and towering ostrich feathers, they struck him as curiously immature compared with hers. It frightened him to think what must have gone to the making of her eyes.
The Duke of St. Austrey, who sat at his hostess's right,was naturally the chief figure of the evening.But if the Countess Olenska was less conspicuous than had been hoped,the Duke was almost invisible.Being a well-bred man he had not (like another recent ducal visitor) come to the dinner in a shooting-jacket; but his evening clothes were so shabby and baggy, and he wore them with such an air of their being homespun, that (with his stooping way of sitting, and the vast beard spreading over his shirt-front) he hardly gave the appearance of being in dinner attire. He was short, round-shouldered, sunburnt, with a thick nose, small eyes and a sociable smile; but he seldom spoke, and when he did it was in such low tones that, despite the frequent silences of expectation about the table, his remarks were lost to all but his neighbours.
When the men joined the ladies after dinner the Duke went straight up to the Countess Olenska, and they sat down in a corner and plunged into animated talk. Neither seemed aware that the Duke should first have paid his respects to Mrs. Lovell Mingott and Mrs. Headly Chivers, and the Countess have conversed with that amiable hypochondriac, Mr. Urban Dagonet of Washington Square, who, in order to have the pleasure of meeting her, had broken through his fixed rule of not dining out between January and April. The two chatted together for nearly twenty minutes; then the Countess rose and, walking alone across the wide drawing-room, sat down at Newland Archer's side.
It was not the custom in New York drawing-rooms for a lady to get up and walk away from one gentleman in order to seek the company of another. Etiquette required that she should wait, immovable as an idol, while the men who wished to converse with her succeeded each other at her side. But the Countess was apparently unaware of having broken any rule; she sat at perfect ease in a corner of the sofa beside Archer, and looked at him with the kindest eyes.
"I want you to talk to me about May," she said.
Instead of answering her he asked:"You knew the Duke before?"
"Oh, yes--we used to see him every winter at Nice.He's very fond of gambling--he used to come to the house a great deal." She said it in the simplest manner,as if she had said: "He's fond of wild-flowers";and after a moment she added candidly:"I think he's the dullest man I ever met."
This pleased her companion so much that he forgot the slight shock her previous remark had caused him. It was undeniably exciting to meet a lady who found the van der Luydens' Duke dull, and dared to utter the opinion. He longed to question her, to hear more about the life of which her careless words had given him so illuminating a glimpse; but he feared to touch on distressing memories, and before he could think of anything to say she had strayed back to her original subject.
"May is a darling; I've seen no young girl in New York so handsome and so intelligent. Are you very much in love with her?"
Newland Archer reddened and laughed."As much as a man can be."
She continued to consider him thoughtfully,as if not to miss any shade of meaning in what he said,"Do you think, then, there is a limit?"
"To being in love?If there is, I haven't found it!"
She glowed with sympathy."Ah--it's really and truly a romance?"
"The most romantic of romances!"
"How delightful!And you found it all out for yourselves--it was not in the least arranged for you?"
Archer looked at her incredulously. "Have you forgotten," he asked with a smile,"that in our country we don't allow our marriages to be arranged for us?"
A dusky blush rose to her cheek,and he instantly regretted his words.
"Yes," she answered, "I'd forgotten.You must forgive me if I sometimes make these mistakes.I don't always remember that everything here is good that was--that was bad where I've come from." She looked down at her Viennese fan of eagle feathers, and he saw that her lips trembled.
"I'm so sorry," he said impulsively;"but you _are_ among friends here, you know."
"Yes--I know. Wherever I go I have that feeling.That's why I came home.I want to forget everything else,to become a complete American again,like the Mingotts and Wellands,and you and your delightful mother,and all the other good people here tonight. Ah,here's May arriving,and you will want to hurry away to her," she added,but without moving;and her eyes turned back from the door to rest on the young man's face.
The drawing-rooms were beginning to fill up with after-dinner guests,and following Madame Olenska's glance Archer saw May Welland entering with her mother. In her dress of white and silver, with a wreath of silver blossoms in her hair, the tall girl looked like a Diana just alight from the chase.
"Oh," said Archer, "I have so many rivals;you see she's already surrounded.There's the Duke being introduced."
"Then stay with me a little longer," Madame Olenska said in a low tone,just touching his knee with her plumed fan.It was the lightest touch,but it thrilled him like a caress.
"Yes, let me stay," he answered in the same tone,hardly knowing what he said; but just then Mr.van der Luyden came up, followed by old Mr.Urban Dagonet. The Countess greeted them with her grave smile,and Archer, feeling his host's admonitory glance on him,rose and surrendered his seat.
Madame Olenska held out her hand as if to bid him goodbye.
"Tomorrow, then, after five--I shall expect you," she said; and then turned back to make room for Mr. Dagonet.
"Tomorrow--" Archer heard himself repeating,though there had been no engagement,and during their talk she had given him no hint that she wished to see him again.