:16:02
Don't wait till the bubble's off
the wine. Marry before Lent.
:16:06
I may catch pneumonia, and I want
to give the wedding breakfast.
:16:10
What a kind offer.
:16:12
Even if she hadn't been
May's grandmother...
:16:14
...Mrs. Manson Mingott would
have been the first to receive...
:16:18
...the required betrothal visit.
:16:21
She was not only the matriarch
of this world...
:16:24
...she was nearly its dowager empress.
:16:26
Much of New York was related to her...
:16:29
...and she knew the remainder
by marriage or by reputation.
:16:33
Though brownstone was the norm...
:16:35
...she lived magisterially
within a large house...
:16:38
...of controversial pale,
cream-colored stone...
:16:43
...in an inaccessible wilderness
near the Central Park.
:16:47
The burden of her flesh
had long since made it impossible...
:16:51
...for her to climb stairs.
:16:53
So with characteristic
independence...
:16:56
...she had established herself
on the ground floor of her house.
:17:00
From her sitting room, there was
an unexpected vista of her bedroom.
:17:06
Her visitors were fascinated by
the foreignness of this arrangement...
:17:10
...which recalled scenes
in French fiction.
:17:14
This was how women with lovers
lived in the wicked old societies.
:17:19
But if she had wanted a lover...
:17:22
...the intrepid woman
would have had him too.
:17:25
For now, she was content simply...
:17:32
...and to anticipate eagerly
the union of Newland Archer...
:17:36
...with her granddaughter, May.
:17:38
In them, two of New York's
best families...
:17:41
...would finally
and momentously be joined.
:17:44
- Goodbye, Mama.
- Goodbye.
:17:47
Ellen.
:17:50
Beaufort, this is a rare favor.
:17:55
Unnecessarily rare, I'd say.
:17:58
I met Countess Ellen,
and she let me walk home with her.