The Age of Innocence: Chapter 18 Summary & Analysis

Ellen enters her drawing room wearing a shimmering dress and looking like she’s ready for a ball. Medora Manson points out the flowers. Ellen grows suddenly angry, saying the bouquet is ridiculous. She calls Nastasia and tells her to bring them to Mr. Winsett’s house for his wife, but not to say they came from her. She gives Nastasia her own cloak for the task.

Ellen laughs, saying that Medora Manson and Archer have become friends while she fussed with her hair. She sees that it’s time for Medora to join Dr. Carver, and she and Archer show Medora out. The unconventionality of Ellen’s familiarity with Nastasia has excited Archer. Back in the drawing room, he lights a cigarette for her, and she asks what he thinks of her temper. He replies that it helps him understand what Medora has been saying about Ellen being used to all kinds of amusement not available in New York. Ellen says Medora is always romantic, and Archer asks whether she tells the truth. Ellen wants to know what else she’s been telling him.

Archer says that Medora Manson has told him that Ellen’s husband wants her back. Ellen seems unsurprised. After a long silence, she admits that Medora has hinted at such a thing, but she isn’t sure whether Medora has come for that reason. Supposedly Medora had a “spiritual summons” from Dr. Carver, whom she might marry. Ellen doesn’t know why she’s really there, but she does believe Medora has a letter from Ellen’s husband. Archer is restless, knowing that Ellen will have to leave at any moment. He says Medora believes she will return to her husband, and Ellen blushes, saying this is a cruel thing to believe.

Ellen says she thinks the Wellands are being ridiculous about Archer’s long engagement. He follows her lead in changing the subject. Ellen is surprised that May is so attached to convention, but Archer admits that she thinks he cares for someone else. Ellen thinks this would make May want to rush the marriage, but Archer explains that May is giving him time to give her up if necessary. He hears Ellen’s carriage approaching. Ellen finds May’s attitude noble, but Archer says it’s ridiculous because he’s not going to marry anyone else.

Ellen asks whether this other woman loves Archer, and he clarifies that the person May was thinking of is unimportant. She wants to know why he’s really so hasty to get married. Just then her carriage arrives. She invites him to come with her to Mrs. Struthers’s. Archer feels he needs to keep her from leaving. He says that there is another woman, but not the one May thinks. He sits beside Ellen and takes her hand. She pulls away, telling him not to flirt with her.

Archer is embarrassed, but he says he would have married Ellen if it were possible. She retorts that he has made it impossible. He’s astonished. She cries that he made her give up the idea of divorce, showing her that she needed to sacrifice herself to preserve the institution of marriage and avoid scandal. She’s given up on divorce for him, because he’s marrying into her family. Stricken, Archer implies that he assumed something about her, and she demands to know what. He admits that he thought her husband’s accusation against her was true, but she says she had nothing to fear from his letter.

Archer feels like their silence is crushing him like a gravestone. He says at least he loved her, and he hears Ellen crying. He goes to her, saying that she can still get a divorce. He kisses her and immediately feels like everything is much simpler. After a moment, she pulls away and says that nothing can change. Archer replies that they can’t lie about their love, and he can’t marry May. She’s adamant that it’s too late for them to go back on their decisions, explaining that he changed everything for her even before she knew what he’d done to help her.

Ellen says that she didn’t realize at first that people didn’t like her, and she only found out later what Archer had done to support her socially. She thought that New York was a peaceful home and everyone was kind. Only Archer helped her understand how she needed to act, because he was the only one who had been tempted by the outside world but refused its dishonorable method of providing happiness. Her words feel like lead in his chest. Impulsively, he kisses her satin shoe. Ellen says she can’t go back to the way of thinking that he cured her of.

Archer becomes angry, asking whether Beaufort will take his place. He wants Ellen to be angry too, but she wilts. He reminds her that Beaufort is waiting at Mrs. Struthers’s. Ellen rings for her maid and tells her she’s no longer going out that evening. Archer says that he can’t keep her from her friends if she’s lonely, but Ellen says she’s no longer lonely because she’s no longer empty inside herself. Archer exclaims that he doesn’t understand her, and she points out that he understands May. He says that he has the right to end their engagement, since May has refused to hasten it, but Ellen doesn’t agree.

Archer feels terribly tired. He wants to hold Ellen again, but her attitude keeps him at bay. When he begins to plead with her again, she screams at him as though frightened. They hear the doorbell, and soon Nastasia comes in with a telegram. She says that Winsett’s wife cried with happiness at the flowers, thinking Winsett had sent them. Ellen opens the telegram. It’s from May, and she says her parents have just agreed to let the marriage happen after Easter.

When Archer returns home, he finds a similar telegram from May. He crushes it and takes out his pocket diary, turning the pages frantically. Then he goes upstairs and knocks on Janey’s door. She was waiting up in case the telegram had bad news. He asks what day Easter is, and she says it’s the first week in April. He calculates the time until then and begins to laugh, saying he’s going to be married in a month. Janey is overjoyed but can’t understand why Archer keeps laughing.