:12:01
Lawrence Lefferts, for instance...
:12:03
...was New York's foremost
authority on form.
:12:06
His opinion on pumps
versus patent-leather oxfords...
:12:10
...had never been disputed.
:12:12
On matters of surreptitious romance...
:12:15
...his skills went unquestioned.
:12:36
Old Mr. Sillerton Jackson was
as great an authority on family...
:12:41
...as Lawrence Lefferts was on form.
:12:44
The mean and melancholy history of
Countess Olenska's European marriage...
:12:49
...was a buried treasure
he hastened to excavate.
:12:53
He carried, like a calling card...
:12:55
...an entire register
of the scandals and mysteries...
:12:58
...that had smoldered under
the unruffled surface of society...
:13:03
...for the last 50 years.
:13:12
Now, Julius Beaufort's secret
was the way he carried things off.
:13:17
He could arrive casually at his
party as if he were another guest...
:13:21
...and might leave early...
:13:23
...for a more modest but comforting
address in the East 30s.
:13:28
He was intrepid in his business...
:13:30
...but in his personal affairs,
absolutely audacious.
:13:38
Archer's fiancee was innocent of all
these intrigues and of much else.
:13:43
May Welland represented for Archer
all that was best in their world...
:13:48
...all that he honored.
And she anchored him to it.
:13:57
I've told my friends,
just as you asked.