Mrs. Henry van der Luyden had been Louisa Dagonet, and her mother had been the granddaughter of Colonel du Lac, of an old Channel Island family, who had fought under Cornwallis and had settled in Maryland, after the war, with his bride, Lady Angelica Trevenna, fifth daughter of the Earl of St. Austrey. The tie between the Dagonets, the du Lacs of Maryland, and their aristocratic Cornish kinsfolk, the Trevennas, had always remained close and cordial. Mr. and Mrs. van der Luyden had more than once paid long visits to the present head of the house of Trevenna, the Duke of St. Austrey, at his country-seat in Cornwall and at St. Austrey in Gloucestershire; and his Grace had frequently announced his intention of some day returning their visit (without the Duchess, who feared the Atlantic).

亨利·范德盧頓太太原名路易莎·達戈內特，其母本是杜拉克上校的孫女。杜拉克屬于海峽島的一個古老家族，曾在康沃利斯麾下征戰，戰后攜新娘圣奧斯特利伯爵的五女兒安吉莉卡·特利文納小姐定居馬里蘭。達戈內特家、馬里蘭的杜拉克家及其康沃爾郡的貴族親戚特利文納家之間的關系一直密切融洽。范德盧頓先生與太太不止一次地對特利文納家的現任首腦、圣奧斯特利公爵進行長時間拜望，到過他在康沃爾郡的莊園及格羅斯特郡的圣奧斯特利，而且公爵大人經常宣布有朝一日將對他們進行回訪的意向（不攜公爵夫人，她害怕大西洋）。

Mr. and Mrs. van der Luyden divided their time between Trevenna, their place in Maryland, and Skuytercliff, the great estate on the Hudson which had been one of the colonial grants of the Dutch government to the famous first Governor, and of which Mr. van der Luyden was still "Patroon." Their large solemn house in Madison Avenue was seldom opened, and when they came to town they received in it only their most intimate friends.

范德盧頓先生與太太把他們的時間分別花在馬里蘭的特利文納宅邸以及哈德遜河沿岸的大莊園斯庫特克利夫。莊園原是荷蘭政府對著名的首任總督的賞賜，范德盧頓先生如今仍為“莊主”。他們在麥迪遜大街那座莊嚴肅穆的宅邪很少開門。他們進城時只在里面接待至交。

"I wish you would go with me, Newland," his mother said, suddenly pausing at the door of the Brown coupe. "Louisa is fond of you; and of course it's on account of dear May that I'm taking this step--and also because, if we don't all stand together, there'll be no such thing as Society left."

“希望你跟我一起去，紐蘭，”母親在布朗馬車的門前突然停步說。“路易莎喜歡你；當然，我是為了親愛的梅才走這一步的——同時還因為，假如我們不都站在一起，上流社會也就不復存在了。”

雙語小說連載:純真年代 The Age of Innocence(5)