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THE REEF
“In a crush – in a Paris foyer? My dear!”
“It was absurd of me! But Owen and I have always been on
odd kind of brother-and-sister terms. I think he guessed about
us when he saw you with me in London. So he teased me a little and tried to make me curious about you; and when he saw
he’d succeeded he told me he hadn’t had time to say much to
you because you were in such a hurry to get back to the lady
you were with.”
He still held her hands, but she felt no tremor in his, and
the blood did not stir in his brown cheek. He seemed to be
honestly turning over his memories. “Yes: and what else did
he tell you?”
“Oh, not much, except that she was awfully pretty. When
I asked him to describe her he said you had her tucked
away in a baignoire and he hadn’t actually seen her; but
he saw the tail of her cloak, and somehow knew from that
that she was pretty. One DOES, you know . . . I think he said
the cloak was pink.”
Darrow broke into a laugh. “Of course it was – they always
are! So that was at the bottom of your doubts?”
“Not at fi rst. I only laughed. But afterward, when
I wrote you and you didn’t answer — Oh, you DO see?” she
appealed to him.
He was looking at her gently. “Yes: I see.”
“It’s not as if this were a light thing between us. I want
you to know me as I am. If I thought that at that moment . . .
when you were on your way here, almost — ”
He dropped her hand and stood up. “Yes, yes –
I understand.”
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EDITH WHARTON
“But do you?” Her look followed him. “I’m not a goose of
a girl. I know . . . of course I KNOW . . . but there are things
a woman feels . . . when what she knows doesn’t make any difference. It’s not that I want you to explain – I mean about
that particular evening. It’s only that I want you to have
the whole of my feeling. I didn’t know what it was till I saw
you again. I never dreamed I should say such things to you!”
“I never dreamed I should be here to hear you say them!”
He turned back and lifting a fl oating end of her scarf put his
lips to it. “But now that you have, I know – I know,” he smiled
down at her.
“You know?”
“That this is no light thing between us. Now you may ask
me anything you please! That was all I wanted to ask YOU.”
For a long moment they looked at each other without
speaking. She saw the dancing spirit in his eyes turn grave and
darken to a passionate sternness. He stooped and kissed her,
and she sat as if folded in wings.
CHAPTER XII
It was in the natural order of things that, on the way back to
the house, their talk should have turned to the future.
Anna was not eager to defi ne it. She had an extraordinary
sensitiveness to the impalpable elements of happiness, and as
she walked at Darrow’s side her imagination fl ew back and
forth, spinning luminous webs of feeling between herself and
the scene about her. Every heightening of emotion produced
for her a new effusion of beauty in visible things, and with
it the sense that such moments should be lingered over and
absorbed like some unrenewable miracle. She understood
Darrow’s impatience to see their plans take shape. She knew it
must be so, she would not have had it otherwise; but to reach
a point where she could fi x her mind on his appeal for dates
and decisions was like trying to break her way through the silver tangle of an April wood.
Darrow wished to use his diplomatic opportunities as
a means of studying certain economic and social problems
with which he presently hoped to deal in print; and with
this in view he had asked for, and obtained, a South American appointment. Anna was ready to follow where he led,
and not reluctant to put new sights as well as new thoughts
between herself and her past. She had, in a direct way, only
123
EDITH WHARTON
Effi e and Effi e’s education to consider; and there seemed, after due refl ection, no reason why the most anxious regard
for these should not be conciliated with the demands of Darrow’s career. Effi e, it was evident, could be left to Madame de
Chantelle’s care till the couple should have organized their
life; and she might even, as long as her future step-father’s
work retained him in distant posts, continue to divide her
year between Givre and the antipodes.
As for Owen, who had reached his legal majority two
years before, and was soon to attain the age fi xed for the taking over of his paternal inheritance, the arrival of this date
would reduce his step-mother’s responsibility to a friendly
concern for his welfare. This made for the prompt realization of Darrow’s wishes, and there seemed no reason why
the marriage should not take place within the six weeks that
remained of his leave.
They passed out of the wood-walk into the open brightness of the garden. The noon sunlight sheeted with gold
the bronze fl anks of the polygonal yews. Chrysanthemums,
russet, saffron and orange, glowed like the effl orescence of
an enchanted forest; belts of red begonia purpling to winecolour ran like smouldering fl ame among the borders; and
above this outspread tapestry the house extended its harmonious length, the soberness of its lines softened to grace in
the luminous misty air.
Darrow stood still, and Anna felt that his glance was
travelling from her to the scene about them and then back to
her face.
124
THE REEF
“You’re sure you’re prepared to give up Givre? You look so
made for each other!”
“Oh, Givre — ” She broke off suddenly, feeling as if her
too careless tone had delivered all her past into his hands; and
with one of her instinctive movements of recoil she added:
“When Owen marries I shall have to give it up.”
“When Owen marries? That’s looking some distance ahead!
I want to be told that meanwhile you’ll have no regrets.”
She hesitated. Why did he press her to uncover to him her
poor starved past? A vague feeling of loyalty, a desire to spare
what could no longer harm her, made her answer evasively:
“There will probably be no ‘meanwhile.’ Owen may marry before long.”
She had not meant to touch on the subject, for her stepson had sworn her to provisional secrecy; but since the shortness of Darrow’s leave necessitated a prompt adjustment of
their own plans, it was, after all, inevitable that she should
give him at least a hint of Owen’s.
“Owen marry? Why, he always seems like a faun in fl annels! I hope he’s found a dryad. There might easily be one
left in these blue-and-gold woods.”
“I can’t tell you yet where he found his dryad, but she IS
one, I believe: at any rate she’ll become the Givre woods better
than I do. Only there may be diffi culties — ”
“Well! At that age they’re not always to be wished away.”
She hesitated. “Owen, at any rate, has made up his mind to
overcome them; and I’ve promised to see him through.”
She went on, after a moment’s consideration, to explain
that her step-son’s choice was, for various reasons, not
125
EDITH WHARTON
likely to commend itself to his grandmother. “She must be
prepared for it, and I’ve promised to do the preparing. You
know I always HAVE seen him through things, and he rather
counts on me now.”
She fancied that Darrow’s exclamation had in it a faint
note of annoyance, and wondered if he again suspected her of
seeking a pretext for postponement.
“But once Owen’s future is settled, you won’t, surely, for
the sake of what you call seeing him through, ask that I should
go away again without you?” He drew her closer as they walked.
“Owen will understand, if you don’t. Since he’s in the same case
himself I’ll throw myself on his mercy. He’ll see that I have
the fi rst claim on you; he won’t even want you not to see it.”
“Owen sees everything: I’m not afraid of that. But his future
isn’t settled. He’s very young to marry – too young, his grandmother is sure to think – and the marriage he wants to make
is not likely to convince her to the contrary.”
“You don’t mean that it’s like his fi rst choice?”
“Oh, no! But it’s not what Madame de Chantelle would call
a good match; it’s not even what I call a wise one.”
“Yet you’re backing him up?”
“Yet I’m backing him up.” She paused. “I wonder if you’ll
understand? What I’ve most wanted for him, and shall want
for Effi e, is that they shall always feel free to make their own
mistakes, and never, if possible, be persuaded to make other
people’s. Even if Owen’s marriage is a mistake, and has to be
paid for, I believe he’ll learn and grow in the paying. Of course
I can’t make Madame de Chantelle see this; but I can remind
her that, with his character – his big rushes of impulse, his
126
THE REEF
odd intervals of ebb and apathy – she may drive him into
some worse blunder if she thwarts him now.”
“And you mean to break the news to her as soon as she
comes back from Ouchy?”
“As soon as I see my way to it. She knows the girl and likes
her: that’s our hope. And yet it may, in the end, prove our danger, make it harder for us all, when she learns the truth, than
if Owen had chosen a stranger. I can’t tell you more till I’ve
told her: I’ve promised Owen not to tell any one. All I ask you
is to give me time, to give me a few days at any rate She’s been
wonderfully ‘nice,’ as she would call it, about you, and about
the fact of my having soon to leave Givre; but that, again, may
make it harder for Owen. At any rate, you can see, can’t you,
how it makes me want to stand by him? You see, I couldn’t
bear it if the least fraction of my happiness seemed to be stolen
from his – as if it were a little scrap of happiness that had to be
pieced out with other people’s!” She clasped her hands on Darrow’s arm. “I want our life to be like a house with all the windows lit: I’d like to string lanterns from the roof and chimneys!”
She ended with an inward tremor. All through her exposition and her appeal she had told herself that the moment
could hardly have been less well chosen. In Darrow’s place
she would have felt, as he doubtless did, that her carefully
developed argument was only the disguise of an habitual indecision. It was the hour of all others when she would have
liked to affi rm herself by brushing aside every obstacle to his
wishes; yet it was only by opposing them that she could show
the strength of character she wanted him to feel in her.
127
EDITH WHARTON
But as she talked she began to see that Darrow’s face gave
back no refl ection of her words, that he continued to wear
the abstracted look of a man who is not listening to what is
said to him. It caused her a slight pang to discover that his
thoughts could wander at such a moment; then, with a fl ush of
joy she perceived the reason.
In some undefi nable way she had become aware, without turning her head, that he was steeped in the sense of her
nearness, absorbed in contemplating the details of her face
and dress; and the discovery made the words throng to her
lips. She felt herself speak with ease, authority, conviction.
She said to herself: “He doesn’t care what I say – it’s enough
that I say it – even if it’s stupid he’ll like me better for it . . .
” She knew that every infl exion of her voice, every gesture,
every characteristic of her person – its very defects, the fact
that her forehead was too high, that her eyes were not large
enough, that her hands, though slender, were not small, and
that the fi ngers did not taper – she knew that these defi ciencies were so many channels through which her infl uence
streamed to him; that she pleased him in spite of them, perhaps because of them; that he wanted her as she was, and not
as she would have liked to be; and for the fi rst time she felt in
her veins the security and lightness of happy love.
They reached the court and walked under the limes toward
the house. The hall door stood wide, and through the windows
opening on the terrace the sun slanted across the black and
white fl oor, the faded tapestry chairs, and Darrow’s travelling
coat and cap, which lay among the cloaks and rugs piled on
a bench against the wall.
128
THE REEF
The sight of these garments, lying among her own wraps,
gave her a sense of homely intimacy. It was as if her happiness
came down from the skies and took on the plain dress of daily
things. At last she seemed to hold it in her hand.
As they entered the hall her eye lit on an unstamped note
conspicuously placed on the table.
“From Owen! He must have rushed off somewhere in
the motor.”
She felt a secret stir of pleasure at the immediate inference
that she and Darrow would probably lunch alone. Then she
opened the note and stared at it in wonder.
“Dear,” Owen wrote, “after what you said yesterday
I can’t wait another hour, and I’m off to Francheuil, to catch
the Dijon express and travel back with them. Don’t be frightened; I won’t speak unless it’s safe to. Trust me for that – but
I had to go.”
She looked up slowly.
“He’s gone to Dijon to meet his grandmother. Oh, I hope
I haven’t made a mistake!”
“You? Why, what have you to do with his going to Dijon?”
She hesitated. “The day before yesterday I told him, for
the fi rst time, that I meant to see him through, no matter what
happened. And I’m afraid he’s lost his head, and will be imprudent and spoil things. You see, I hadn’t meant to say a word to
him till I’d had time to prepare Madame de Chantelle.”
She felt that Darrow was looking at her and reading her
thoughts, and the colour fl ew to her face. “Yes: it was when
I heard you were coming that I told him. I wanted him to feel
129
EDITH WHARTON
as I felt . . . it seemed too unkind to make him wait!” Her hand
was in his, and his arm rested for a moment on her shoulder.
“It WOULD have been too unkind to make him wait.”
They moved side by side toward the stairs. Through
the haze of bliss enveloping her, Owen’s affairs seemed curiously unimportant and remote. Nothing really mattered but
this torrent of light in her veins. She put her foot on the lowest
step, saying: “It’s nearly luncheon time – I must take off my
hat . . . ” and as she started up the stairs Darrow stood below in
the hall and watched her. But the distance between them did
not make him seem less near: it was as if his thoughts moved
with her and touched her like endearing hands.
In her bedroom she shut the door and stood still, looking
about her in a fi t of dreamy wonder. Her feelings were unlike
any she had ever known: richer, deeper, more complete. For
the fi rst time everything in her, from head to foot, seemed to
be feeding the same full current of sensation.
She took off her hat and went to the dressing-table to
smooth her hair. The pressure of the hat had fl attened the dark
strands on her forehead; her face was paler than usual, with
shadows about the eyes. She felt a pang of regret for the wasted
years. “If I look like this today,” she said to herself, “what will
he think of me when I’m ill or worried?” She began to run her
fi ngers through her hair, rejoicing in its thickness; then she
desisted and sat still, resting her chin on her hands.
“I want him to see me as I am,” she thought.
Deeper than the deepest fi bre of her vanity was the triumphant sense that AS SHE WAS, with her fl attened hair, her
tired pallor, her thin sleeves a little tumbled by the weight of
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