How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
Archer, as he watched, remembered the scene in The Shaughraun,and Montague lifting Ada Dyas's ribbon to his lips without her knowing that he was in the room.
"She doesn't know —she hasn't guessed. Shouldn't I know if she came up behind me; I wonder?" he mused, and suddenly he said to himself: "If she doesn't turn before that sail crosses the Lime Rock light I'll go back." (21.33-4)
Another of Archer's romantic fantasies. But this one, from a scene in a play where a couple is to be parted and the man subversively kisses the woman's sash, is a little nearer the reality of Archer's life.
Quote #5
But now it was the Welland house, and the life he was expected to lead in it, that had become unreal and irrelevant, and the brief scene on the shore, when he had stood irresolute, halfway down the bank, was as close to him as the blood in his veins. (21.46)
When Archer falls in love with Madame Olenska, his whole way of looking at the world is turned upside down. His fantasies begin to have more reality than his everyday life.
Quote #6
He heard a rustle of skirts against the box, and sat motionless, leaning on the parasol handle with clasped hands, and letting the rustle come nearer without lifting his eyes. He had always known that this must happen … (22.24)
And now we're onto at least the third time Archer's fantasies don't work out. He imagines he's kissing Ellen's parasol handle, but the parasol turns out to belong to the Blenker girl, not Madame Olenska. Say what you will, this guy's persistent in his day-dreaming.