Wharton, Edith — The Age of Innocence [1917]

Archer remained motionless, gazing at the upper windows as if the end of their pilgrimage had been attained. … “I say, you know, it’s nearly six,” his son at length reminded him. … The father glanced away at an empty bench under the trees. … “I believe I’ll sit there a moment,” he said. — Wharton, Edith, The Age of Innocence, 1917

Note

The novel’s last gesture: Archer declines the visit at the threshold, choosing the preserved image over the lived encounter. The ‘empty bench under the trees’ is where he lets Ellen become the ‘composite vision’ he had carried for thirty years.