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Something of her mother’s fierce shrinking fromobservation and sympathy was beginning to develop in her, and thepromiscuity of small quarters and close intimacy seemed, on the whole,less endurable than the solitude of a hall bedroom in a house where shecould come and go unremarked among other workers. For a while she hadbeen sustained by this desire for privacy and independence; but now,perhaps from increasing physical weariness, the lassitude brought aboutby hours of unwonted confinement, she was beginning to feel acutely theugliness and discomfort of her surroundings. The day’s task done, shedreaded to return to her narrow room, with its blotched wall-paper andshabby paint; and she hated every step of the walk thither, through thedegradation of a New York street in the last stages of decline fromfashion to commerce. Though she kept the even tone of light intercourse, the question wasframed in a way to remind him that his good offices were unsought; andfor a moment Selden was checked by it. The situation between them was onewhich could have been cleared up only by a sudden explosion of feeling;and their whole training and habit of mind were against the chances ofsuch an explosion. Selden’s calmness seemed rather to harden intoresistance, and Miss Bart’s into a surface of glittering irony, as theyfaced each other from the opposite corners of one of Mrs. Hatch’selephantine sofas.
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When Lily and Selden return from their walk later than they had planned, everyone sees that they spent time together. Bertha becomes extremely jealous and, to take her revenge on Lily, decides to tell Percy Gryce that Lily’s attitude of purity and self-restraint is only an illusion. Bertha references rumors about Lily borrowing money from a man—although Lily later tells her friend Judy Trenor that the man she borrowed from is part of her family and that she repaid him—and this comment frightens Gryce, who leaves Bellomont the next morning. Set in New York at the end of the 19th century, The House of Mirth describes Lily Bart’s efforts to maintain her elevated position in high society.
Also by Edith Wharton
She was tooself-engrossed to penetrate the recesses of his shyness, and besides, whyshould she care to give herself the trouble? At most it might amuse herto make sport of his simplicity for an evening—after that he would bemerely a burden to her, and knowing this, she was far too experienced toencourage him. But the mere thought of that other woman, who could take aman up and toss him aside as she willed, without having to regard him asa possible factor in her plans, filled Lily Bart with envy. There were moments when such scenes delighted Lily, when they gratifiedher sense of beauty and her craving for the external finish of life;there were others when they gave a sharper edge to the meagreness of herown opportunities. This was one of the moments when the sense of contrastwas uppermost, and she turned away impatiently as Mrs. George Dorset,glittering in serpentine spangles, drew Percy Gryce in her wake to aconfidential nook beneath the gallery.
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton – review
Nevertheless she was glad that, when shedescended to the heat and glare of the dining-room, the repast was nearlyover. She dressed herself once more for the street, locked her door and wentout. When she emerged on the pavement, the day was still high, but athreat of rain darkened the sky and cold gusts shook the signs projectingfrom the basement shops along the street. She was sufficiently familiar with Mrs.Dorset’s habits to know that she could always be found at home afterfive. She might not, indeed, be accessible to visitors, especially to avisitor so unwelcome, and against whom it was quite possible that she hadguarded herself by special orders; but Lily had written a note which shemeant to send up with her name, and which she thought would secure heradmission.
Poverty simplifies book-keeping, and her financialsituation was easier to ascertain than it had been then; but she had notyet learned the control of money, and during her transient phase ofluxury at the Emporium she had slipped back into habits of extravagancewhich still impaired her slender balance. She hid hereyes with a shudder, beholding herself at the entrance of thatever-narrowing perspective down which she had seen Miss Silverton’s dowdyfigure take its despondent way. His words recalled the vision of that other afternoon when they had sattogether over his tea-table and talked jestingly of her future.
At first his mindrefused to act—he felt only the taint of such a transaction between aman like Trenor and a girl like Lily Bart. Then, gradually, his troubledvision cleared, old hints and rumours came back to him, and out of thevery insinuations he had feared to probe, he constructed an explanationof the mystery. It was true, then, that she had taken money from Trenor;but true also, as the contents of the little desk declared, that theobligation had been intolerable to her, and that at the first opportunityshe had freed herself from it, though the act left her face to face withbare unmitigated poverty.
It seemed wonderful to him that anyone should perform with such careless ease the difficult task of makingtea in public in a lurching train. He would never have dared to order itfor himself, lest he should attract the notice of his fellow-passengers;but, secure in the shelter of her conspicuousness, he sipped the inkydraught with a delicious sense of exhilaration. She signalled to that official, and in a moment, with the ease thatseemed to attend the fulfilment of all her wishes, a little table hadbeen set up between the seats, and she had helped Mr. Gryce to bestow hisencumbering properties beneath it. She steadied herself with a laugh and drew back; but he was enveloped inthe scent of her dress, and his shoulder had felt her fugitive touch.
She felt herself oncemore the alert and competent moulder of emergencies, and the remembranceof her power over Selden flushed her with sudden confidence. In its unpleasant light Selden had risen and was shaking hands with hishostess. The air of the place stifled him, and he wondered why he hadstayed in it so long. At Mrs. Fisher’s, through the cigar smoke of the studio, a dozen voicesgreeted Selden. A song was pending as he entered, and he dropped into aseat near his hostess, his eyes roaming in search of Miss Bart. But shewas not there, and the discovery gave him a pang out of all proportion toits seriousness; since the note in his breast-pocket assured him that atfour the next day they would meet.
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Lily saw thisnow in Mrs. Gormer’s unconcealable complacency, and in the happyirrelevance with which, for the next day or two, she quoted Bertha’sopinions and speculated on the origin of her gown. I’ve been hoping to meetyou—I should have written to you if I’d dared.” His face, with itstossed red hair and straggling moustache, had a driven uneasy look, asthough life had become an unceasing race between himself and the thoughtsat his heels. It was in this frame of mind that, striking back from the shore onemorning into the windings of an unfamiliar lane, she came suddenly uponthe figure of George Dorset. The Dorset place was in the immediateneighbourhood of the Gormers’ newly-acquired estate, and in hermotor-flights thither with Mrs. Gormer, Lily had caught one or twopassing glimpses of the couple; but they moved in so different an orbitthat she had not considered the possibility of a direct encounter. Lily, going to bed early, had left the couple to themselves; and itseemed part of the general mystery in which she moved that more than anhour should elapse before she heard Bertha walk down the silent passageand regain her room.
In consequence of this hint, Lily found herselfthe centre of that feminine solicitude which envelops a young woman inthe mating season. A solitude was tacitly created for her in the crowdedexistence of Bellomont, and her friends could not have shown a greaterreadiness for self-effacement had her wooing been adorned with all theattributes of romance. In Lily’s set this conduct implied a sympatheticcomprehension of her motives, and Mr. Gryce rose in her esteem as she sawthe consideration he inspired.
The sight of his composure had a disturbingeffect on Lily; but to be disturbed was in her case to make a morebrilliant effort at self-possession. George Dorset’s talk did not interfere with the range of his neighbour’sthoughts. He was a mournful dyspeptic, intent on finding out thedeleterious ingredients of every dish and diverted from this care only bythe sound of his wife’s voice. On this occasion, however, Mrs. Dorsettook no part in the general conversation. She sat talking in low murmurswith Selden, and turning a contemptuous and denuded shoulder toward herhost, who, far from resenting his exclusion, plunged into the excesses ofthe MENU with the joyous irresponsibility of a free man.
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