Sanctuary
()
About this ebook
Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) was an American novelist—the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Age of Innocence in 1921—as well as a short story writer, playwright, designer, reporter, and poet. Her other works include Ethan Frome, The House of Mirth, and Roman Fever and Other Stories. Born into one of New York’s elite families, she drew upon her knowledge of upper-class aristocracy to realistically portray the lives and morals of the Gilded Age.
Read more from Edith Wharton
The Custom of the Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Children Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mother's Recompense Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Writing of Fiction: The Classic Guide to the Art of the Short Story and the Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Touchstone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Old Maid: The 'Fifties Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reef Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glimpses of the Moon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Son at the Front Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Manhattan Noir 2: The Classics Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Complete Works of Edith Wharton. Illustrated: The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome and others Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRoman Fever and Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Custom of the Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Collected Short Stories of Edith Wharton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Backward Glance: An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roman Fever: Short Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Greatest American Short Stories: 50+ Classics of American Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings50 Feminist Masterpieces you have to read before you die (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5In Morocco Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Here and Beyond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Italian Villas and Their Gardens Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Age of Innocence: The Wild and Wanton Edition Volume 1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Morocco Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Short Stories Of Edith Wharton - Volume I: Madame de Treymes & Other Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to Sanctuary
Related ebooks
Sanctuary Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Sanctuary (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Essential Edith Wharton Collection Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Short Stories Of Edith Wharton - Volume VII: Sanctuary & The Bunner Sisters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sanctuary by Edith Wharton - Delphi Classics (Illustrated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSanctuary (Annotated) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Scandal, a Secret, a Baby Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Olivero's Outrageous Proposal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When We Meet Again Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Déjà vu: Déjà vu Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMistletoe for Felicity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wings of the Dove Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wings of the Dove: Must Read Classics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wings of the Dove + The Ambassadors + What Maisie Knew + The Turn of the Screw: (4 Unabridged Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Spoils of Poynton Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Reef Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Woman In The Alcove Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Confidence-Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Mystery Classics of Henry James: The Wings of the Dove, The Ambassadors, What Maisie Knew & The Turn of the Screw Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSantiago Sol Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFortunate Harbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doctor's Forbidden Fling Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mary Cholmondeley: The Best Works Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Turn of the Screw & Other Novels - 4 Books in One Edition: Including What Maisie Knew, The Wings of the Dove & The Ambassadors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Heart of the Phoenix Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pride and Prejudice (Illustrated) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Secrets Of A Billionaire's Mistress Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Murder at the Ocean Forest Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wings of the Dove (Complete Edition): Classic Romance Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Historical Fiction For You
Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Grapes of Wrath Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5East of Eden (Original Classic Edition) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yellow Wife: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5That Bonesetter Woman: the new feelgood novel from the author of The Smallest Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Tender Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Red Tent - 20th Anniversary Edition: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebecca Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The House of Eve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sold on a Monday: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Life of Mirielle West: A Haunting Historical Novel Perfect for Book Clubs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Island of Sea Women: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kitchen House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls in the Stilt House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life She Was Given: A Moving and Emotional Saga of Family and Resilient Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Carnegie's Maid: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book Woman's Daughter: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Light Between Oceans: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of Magic: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Magic Lessons: The Prequel to Practical Magic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Euphoria Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House Is on Fire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tinkers: 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Sanctuary
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Sanctuary - Edith Wharton
SANCTUARY
..................
Edith Wharton
KYPROS PRESS
Thank you for reading. In the event that you appreciate this book, please consider sharing the good word(s) by leaving a review, or connect with the author.
This book is a work of fiction; its contents are wholly imagined.
All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.
Copyright © 2015 by Edith Wharton
Interior design by Pronoun
Distribution by Pronoun
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sanctuary
PART I
PART II
SANCTUARY
..................
PART I
..................
IT IS NOT OFTEN THAT youth allows itself to feel undividedly happy: the sensation is too much the result of selection and elimination to be within reach of the awakening clutch on life. But Kate Orme, for once, had yielded herself to happiness; letting it permeate every faculty as a spring rain soaks into a germinating meadow. There was nothing to account for this sudden sense of beatitude; but was it not this precisely which made it so irresistible, so overwhelming? There had been, within the last two months—since her engagement to Denis Peyton—no distinct addition to the sum of her happiness, and no possibility, she would have affirmed, of adding perceptibly to a total already incalculable. Inwardly and outwardly the conditions of her life were unchanged; but whereas, before, the air had been full of flitting wings, now they seemed to pause over her and she could trust herself to their shelter.
Many influences had combined to build up the centre of brooding peace in which she found herself. Her nature answered to the finest vibrations, and at first her joy in loving had been too great not to bring with it a certain confusion, a readjusting of the whole scenery of life. She found herself in a new country, wherein he who had led her there was least able to be her guide. There were moments when she felt that the first stranger in the street could have interpreted her happiness for her more easily than Denis. Then, as her eye adapted itself, as the lines flowed into each other, opening deep vistas upon new horizons, she began to enter into possession of her kingdom, to entertain the actual sense of its belonging to her. But she had never before felt that she also belonged to it; and this was the feeling which now came to complete her happiness, to give it the hallowing sense of permanence.
She rose from the writing-table where, list in hand, she had been going over the wedding-invitations, and walked toward the drawing-room window. Everything about her seemed to contribute to that rare harmony of feeling which levied a tax on every sense. The large coolness of the room, its fine traditional air of spacious living, its outlook over field and woodland toward the lake lying under the silver bloom of September; the very scent of the late violets in a glass on the writing-table; the rosy-mauve masses of hydrangea in tubs along the terrace; the fall, now and then, of a leaf through the still air—all, somehow, were mingled in the suffusion of well-being that yet made them seem but so much dross upon its current.
The girl’s smile prolonged itself at the sight of a figure approaching from the lower slopes above the lake. The path was a short cut from the Peyton place, and she had known that Denis would appear in it at about that hour. Her smile, however, was prolonged not so much by his approach as by her sense of the impossibility of communicating her mood to him. The feeling did not disturb her. She could not imagine sharing her deepest moods with any one, and the world in which she lived with Denis was too bright and spacious to admit of any sense of constraint. Her smile was in truth a tribute to that clear-eyed directness of his which was so often a refuge from her own complexities.
Denis Peyton was used to being met with a smile. He might have been pardoned for thinking smiles the habitual wear of the human countenance; and his estimate of life and of himself was necessarily tinged by the cordial terms on which they had always met each other. He had in fact found life, from the start, an uncommonly agreeable business, culminating fitly enough in his engagement to the only girl he had ever wished to marry, and the inheritance, from his unhappy step-brother, of a fortune which agreeably widened his horizon. Such a combination of circumstances might well justify a young man in thinking himself of some account in the universe; and it seemed the final touch of fitness that the mourning which Denis still wore for poor Arthur should lend a new distinction to his somewhat florid good looks.
Kate Orme was not without an amused perception of her future husband’s point of view; but she could enter into it with the tolerance which allows for the inconscient element in all our judgments. There was, for instance, no one more sentimentally humane than Denis’s mother, the second Mrs. Peyton, a scented silvery person whose lavender silks and neutral-tinted manner expressed a mind with its blinds drawn down toward all the unpleasantness of life; yet it was clear that Mrs. Peyton saw a dispensation
in the fact that her step-son had never married, and that his death had enabled Denis, at the right moment, to step gracefully into affluence. Was it not, after all, a sign of healthy-mindedness to take the gifts of the gods in this religious spirit, discovering fresh evidence of design
in what had once seemed the sad fact of Arthur’s inaccessibility to correction? Mrs. Peyton, beautifully conscious of having done her best
for Arthur, would have thought it unchristian to repine at the providential failure of her efforts. Denis’s deductions were, of course, a little less direct than his mother’s. He had, besides, been fond of Arthur, and his efforts to keep the poor fellow straight had been less didactic and more spontaneous. Their result read itself, if not in any change in Arthur’s character, at least in the revised wording of his will; and Denis’s moral sense was pleasantly fortified by the discovery that it very substantially paid to be a good fellow.
The sense of general providentialness on which Mrs. Peyton reposed had in fact been confirmed by events which reduced Denis’s mourning to a mere tribute of respect—since it would have been a mockery to deplore the disappearance of any one who had left behind him such an unsavory wake as poor Arthur. Kate did not quite know what had happened: her father was as firmly convinced as Mrs. Peyton that young girls should not be admitted to any open discussion of life. She could only gather, from the silences and evasions amid which she moved, that a woman had turned up—a woman who was of course dreadful,
and whose dreadfulness appeared to include a sort of shadowy claim upon Arthur. But the claim, whatever it was, had been promptly discredited. The whole question had vanished and the woman with it. The blinds were drawn again on the ugly side of things, and life was resumed on the usual assumption that no such side existed. Kate knew only that a darkness had crossed her sky and left it as unclouded as before.
Was it, perhaps, she now asked herself, the very lifting of the cloud—remote, unthreatening as it had been—which gave such new serenity to her heaven? It was horrible to think that one’s deepest security was a mere sense of escape—that happiness was no more than a reprieve. The perversity of such ideas was emphasized by Peyton’s approach. He had the gift of restoring things to their normal relations, of carrying one over the chasms of life