Newland’s plan is to speak to Ellen, find out what train she will take to Washington, join her, and run away with her to Japan. He will leave a note for May. However, he drops this plan with relief when he learns from Mrs. Mingott that Ellen will be staying with her.
On his walk home, he sees Ellen leaving the Beaufort house and stops to speak with her. Unfortunately, Lawrence Lefferts and young Chivers are passing and see them. Newland winces at their discovery and wonders how he and Ellen can live such a covert existence. He pleads with Ellen to meet him alone at the Metropolitan Museum the next day, but she appears to dislike this idea. Despite his earlier theoretical championship of Ellen’s freedom as a single woman, his next words indicate his real feelings because after she leaves he says, almost contemptuously, “she’ll come!”
The following day, they meet at the museum amidst the wreckage of earlier civilizations. Discussing their future, she explains that her stay with her grandmother is to keep them from “doing irreparable harm” to those who love them. However, she reluctantly gives in to Newland’s pressure; she agrees to a future brief sexual encounter, after which she is determined go back to Europe. He feels this intimacy will give him the power to pressure her into staying. Then Newland goes home to May who greets him with the news that she saw Ellen at Mrs. Mingott’s and they had “a really good talk.” She feels she has misjudged Ellen. The following evening, the van der Luydens attend a small dinner at Mrs. Archer’s home before going to the opera. Sillerton Jackson, Newland, and May are also there. They discuss Ellen at some length and disapprove of her taking Mrs. Mingott’s carriage to the Beaufort’s house. After dinner they attend the opera and Newland recalls that it was the same opera they saw the night he met Ellen. May is wearing her made-over wedding dress and she looks the same after two years except for her paleness. He remembers her saying that she could not have her happiness made out of a wrong to someone else. Deciding to confess all and ask for his freedom, Newland pleads a headache and they go home.
At home they settle into the library, but before he can confess, May reveals that Mrs. Manson Mingott has given Ellen an allowance and she is going back to Europe. May had received a letter from Ellen that very afternoon saying that it would be useless for her friends to urge her to change her mind. Cryptically, May adds, “I think she understands everything,” and goes to bed. Newland is dumbfounded.
Newland later meets with Mrs. Mingott and when he returns home that evening, May announces a going-away dinner for Ellen. She is very assertive when Newland questions her reasons, and she explains that her mother agrees it is the thing to do. The farewell dinner will be their first big dinner since their marriage. It has been 10 days since Newland saw Ellen and he muses that she will return to Europe and he will follow.
The night of the dinner arrives and when all are assembled Ellen appears, pale and “lusterless.” Every glance at her reminds Newland of memories of his love. Now that Ellen is leaving, the Mingotts and Wellands express their affection for her; it is obvious to Newland that this is “a tribal rally around a kinswoman about to be eliminated from the tribe.” Suddenly, Newland realizes that the entire family believes he and Ellen are lovers and they are separating them in the most civilized manner possible. Throughout the evening, Newland and Ellen exchange pleasantries, aware that all eyes are on them.
The gentlemen retire to their cigars. Lefferts expounds on the decline of values in New York society, and eventually the men return to the drawing room and “May’s triumphant eyes.” Newland realizes she shares the belief that he and Ellen are lovers. May kisses Ellen’s cheek, vanquishing the foe, and Newland accompanies Ellen to the hall, putting her cloak on her shoulders. When he thinks they might be alone for a moment, the van der Luydens appear and announce they are driving Ellen. He tells her that he will see her soon in Paris, and she correctly says it would be nice if he and May could come. Then she is gone.
The dinner is over and Newland and May are in the library. Newland starts to confess once again, but says instead that he needs to go on a long trip because he is very tired. May explains that the doctor might not let her go along, and she reveals that she has already told both her mother and mother-in-law that she is pregnant. It dawns on Newland that the conversation she had with Ellen two weeks earlier was about her pregnancy. She watches Newland intently as she asks if he minds. In questioning her, he finds that she told Ellen this news long before she was sure.
