For a second or two he could not trust himself to...
For a second or two he could not trust himself to speakDuring this interval he heard MRiviere's chair pushed back, and was aware that the young man had risenWhen he glanced up again he saw that his visitor was as moved as himself

"Thank you," Archer said simply

"There's nothing to thank me for, Monsieur: it is I, rather—" MRiviere broke off, as if speech for him too were difficult"I should like, though," he continued in a firmer voice, "to add one thingYou asked me if I was in Count Olenski's employI am at this moment: I returned to him, a few months ago, for reasons of private necessity such as may happen to any one who has persons, ill and older persons, dependent on himBut from the moment that I have taken the step of coming here to say these things to you I consider myself discharged, and I shall tell him so on my return, and give him the reasonsThat's all, MonsieurRiviere bowed and drew back a step

"Thank you," Archer said again, as their hands met
Every year on the fifteenth of October Fifth Avenue opened its shutters, unrolled its carpets and hung up its gucci twirl watch triple layer of window-curtains

By the first of November this household ritual was over, and society had begun to look about and take stock of itselfBy the fifteenth the season was in full blast, Opera and theatres were putting forth their new attractions, dinner-engagements were accumulating, and dates for dances being fixedAnd punctually at about this time MrsArcher always said that New York was very much changed

Observing it from the lofty stand-point of a non-participant, she was able, with the help of MrSillerton Jackson and Miss Sophy, to trace each new crack in its surface, and all the strange weeds pushing up between the ordered rows of social vegetablesIt had been one of the amusements of Archer's youth to wait for this annual pronouncement of his mother's, and to hear her enumerate the minute signs of disintegration that his careless gaze had overlookedArcher's mind, never changed without changing for the worse; and in this view Miss Sophy Jackson heartily concurredSillerton Jackson, as became a man of the world, suspended his judgment and listened with an fendi b bag amused impartiality to the lamentations of the ladiesBut even he never denied that New York had changed; and Newland Archer, in the winter of the second year of his marriage, was himself obliged to admit that if it had not actually changed it was certainly changing

These points had been raised, as usual, at MrsArcher's Thanksgiving dinnerAt the date when she was officially enjoined to give thanks for the blessings of the year it was her habit to take a mournful though not embittered stock of her world, and wonder what there was to be thankful forAt any rate, not the state of society; society, if it could be said to exist, was rather a spectacle on which to call down Biblical imprecations—and in fact, every one knew what the Reverend DrAshmore meant when he chose a text from Jeremiah (chap verse 25) for his Thanksgiving sermonAshmore, the new Rector of StMatthew's, had been chosen because he was very "advanced": his sermons were considered bold in thought and novel in languageWhen he fulminated against fashionable society he always spoke of its "trend"; and to MrsArcher it louis vuitton white speedy was terrifying and yet fascinating to feel herself part of a community that was trending

"There's no doubt that DrAshmore is right: there IS a marked trend," she said, as if it were something visible and measurable, like a crack in a house

"It was odd, though, to preach about it on Thanksgiving," Miss Jackson opined; and her hostess drily rejoined: "Oh, he means us to give thanks for what's left

Archer had been wont to smile at these annual vaticinations of his mother's; but this year even he was obliged to acknowledge, as he listened to an enumeration of the changes, that the "trend" was visible

"The extravagance in dress—" Miss Jackson began"Sillerton took me to the first night of the Opera, and I can only tell you that Jane Merry's dress was the only one I recognised from last year; and even that had had the front panel changedYet I know she got it out from Worth only two years ago, because my seamstress always goes in to make over her Paris dresses before she wears them

"Ah, Jane Merry is one of US," said MrsArcher sighing, as if it were not such an discount hermes enviable thing to be in an age when ladies were beginning to flaunt abroad their Paris dresses as soon as they were out of the Custom House, instead of letting them mellow under lock and key, in the manner of MrsArcher's contemporaries

"Yes; she's one of the fewIn my youth," Miss Jackson rejoined, "it was considered vulgar to dress in the newest fashions; and Amy Sillerton has always told me that in Boston the rule was to put away one's Paris dresses for two yearsBaxter Pennilow, who did everything handsomely, used to import twelve a year, two velvet, two satin, two silk, and the other six of poplin and the finest cashmereIt was a standing order, and as she was ill for two years before she died they found forty-eight Worth dresses that had never been taken out of tissue paper; and when the girls left off their mourning they were able to wear the first lot at the Symphony concerts without looking in advance of the fashion

"Ah, well, Boston is more conservative than New York; but I always think it's a safe rule for a lady to lay aside her French dresses for one season," new chanel bags Mr