8

In the drawing room at Ellen's house

ARCHER

        (under pressure)

        May and I had a frank talk in Florida.  Probably our first.  She wants a long engagement 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 neve.(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 had been 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 this room, about sacrifice and sparing scandal because my family was going to be your family?  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 afraid of 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 I never 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 behind me instead of one.  I never understood how dreadful 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 so kind and glad to see me.  But there was no one as kind as you.  They never knew what it meant to be tempted.  But you did.  You understood.  You hated happiness brought by disloyalty and cruelty and indifference.  I'd never known that before, and it's better 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 way I'll be making you act against what I love in you most.  And I can't go back to that way 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 you up?

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 for everyone if we...

ELLEN

        (almost screaming)

        No, no, no!

9.1

In the drawing room of the Mingott Newport cottage

9.2

Outside the Mingott House

[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't I 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.  She just 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 about

        Julius 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 last met.  He was even familiar with the main incidents of her life.  But he heard all these accounts with detachment, as if listening to reminiscences of someone long dead.  But the past had come again into the present, as in those newly discovered caverns in Tuscany, where children had lit bunches of straw and seen old images staring 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 Lime Rock 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 with her 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.