Wharton, Edith — The Age of Innocence [806]

The one thing he had not counted on, in entering Madame Olenska’s hall, was to find hats and overcoats there. Why had she bidden him to come early if she was having people to dine? On a closer inspection of the garments beside which Nastasia was laying his own, his resentment gave way to curiosity. The overcoats were in fact the very strangest he had ever seen under a polite roof; and it took but a glance to assure himself that neither of them belonged to Julius Beaufort. One was a shaggy yellow ulster of “reach-me-down” cut, the other a very old and rusty cloak with a cape—something like what the French called a “Macfarlane.” This garment, which appeared to be made for a person of prodigious size, had evidently seen long and hard wear, and its greenish-black folds gave out a moist sawdusty smell suggestive of prolonged sessions against bar-room walls. On it lay a ragged gray scarf and an odd felt hat of semi-clerical shape. — Wharton, Edith, The Age of Innocence, 806

Note

Wharton reads character through garments with forensic relish — the yellow ‘reach-me-down’ ulster and the sawdusty ‘Macfarlane’ instantly conjure a world of barroom walls and semi-clerical hats. The overcoats act as a social shock-device: the strangest seen ‘under a polite roof’ signals that Ellen’s rooms breach the code even before anyone has spoken.