The House of Mirth

Lily returns to her aunt’s New York City residence after attending the Stepney-Van Osburgh wedding. Lily usually spends time at various country house parties when her aunt, Mrs. Peniston, supervises the cleaning and renovation of her charmless home. Mrs. Peniston prefers the advice of her obscure middle-aged cousin, Miss Grace Stepney, regarding domestic tasks over the impatient comments of Lily about the unaesthetic décor. This autumn, however, Lily receives fewer social invitations due to her failure to marry and she avoids Bellomont with its potential for unwanted attentions from Gus. As Lily ascends the stairs at her aunt’s home, she encounters the same char-woman who rudely stared at her while scrubbing the floors at the Benedick.

After dinner, the doorbell rings and the maid notifies Lily that a woman named Mrs. Haffen wants to see her. Lily is surprised to find the char-woman waiting outside. Mrs. Haffen tells Lily that her husband was a janitor at the Benedick but lost his job through no fault of his own. She urgently needs to raise money to pay their rent. Mrs. Haffen produces a packet of letters that were torn but pieced back together. Mrs. Haffen said that she found them when she swept Selden’s rooms. Disgusted, Lily recognizes the handwriting of Bertha Dorset on the letters. These letters reveal that the married woman once had an affair with Selden, and she appeals to him to renew the tie. Her letters apparently went unanswered.

Mrs. Haffen assumes that this correspondence was penned by Lily since she witnessed Lily’s exit from Selden’s apartment. Lily realizes that the possessor of Bertha’s letters could destroy her marriage by delivering them to Bertha’s irritable husband, George. Lily instinctively rejects such a despicable action. Lily’s concern about protecting Selden’s reputation prompts her to buy the letters with the intention of destroying them as Selden intended. Later, her aunt tells Lily that Bertha was boasting about the match she made between Percy and Evie Van Osburgh. Lily’s cheeks burn as she recalls how Bertha ridicules her by insinuations, even while Bertha has focused on a new conquest, young Ned Silverton. Lily’s honorable intention to destroy Bertha’s letters is “effaced by the quick corrosion of Mrs. Peniston’s words” (115). Lily preserves the packet without reading the correspondence.

Lily enjoys spending the money she receives from Gus, “having never before known what it was to command so large a sum” (116). Her temporary freedom from minor debts obscures her sense of the greater obligation incurred by assistance from her friend’s husband. When Selden’s cousin Gerty dejectedly tells Lily about her failure to acquire enough donations for a charity helping young women who are employed in downtown offices, Lily sympathizes and gives a liberal amount. Lily continues to spend her money and feels that her spontaneous philanthropy excuses her extravagances.

An invitation to spend Thanksgiving week in the Adirondacks renews Lily’s sense of personal power. The party is not at the level of society Lily typically frequents. Organized by Carry Fisher for Mrs. Wellington Bry, a lady of uncertain origins and boundless social ambitions, the gathering features in society columns because of Lily’s attendance.

A few days after her return to New York City, Lily is surprised by a visit from Rosedale. He invites her to attend the opera in his box on opening night, mentioning that Carry Fisher as well as Lily’s great admirer, Gus, will join them. When Lily tries to distance herself from the coupling of her name with Gus, Rosedale informs her that he knows Gus made money for her on Wall Street. Rosedale notices Lily’s nervousness about his knowledge of her transaction with Gus and he may use this to advance his acquaintance with her.

Lily proudly displays her beauty in the opera box, but Gus dismays her with his inebriated forwardness. Gus pressures Lily to meet him at the park the next afternoon. When George Dorset takes Gus’s place in the opera box, Lily greets him with relief and kindly humors him. George conveys Bertha’s invitation to Lily to visit their residence next Sunday. Lily’s possession of Bertha’s letters has ended her “thirst for retaliation” (125). She accepts the invitation, hoping it will permit her to escape from Gus’s harassment.

Society investments are shrinking due to losses on Wall Street this autumn. Only Wellington Bry and Rosedale are rumored to be growing richer at this time. Rosedale increasingly views Lily as the possessor of qualities needed for his social rise.

Lily assumes that Mrs. Peniston’s poor, dingy cousin, Grace Stepney, admires Lily’s superior brilliance in a manner like that of Selden’s cousin Gerty. Lily fails to realize that Grace feels animosity toward her because Lily persuaded her aunt to disinvite Grace from a fashionable dinner held in honor of Jack Stepney’s recent marriage. Grace’s mind “was like a kind of moral fly-paper, to which the buzzing items of gossip were drawn by a fatal attraction” (128). Grace maliciously reports to Lily’s aunt that people are gossiping about a flirtation between Lily and Gus, supposing that Gus pays Lily’s bills, including her gambling debts. Lily has been seen walking with Gus in the park quite late. Lily’s aunt is horrified to imagine her niece flirting with a married man or playing cards for money. Grace also mentions that Lily reportedly accepts attention from George Dorset and that Judy has quarreled with her because of Gus.

Mrs. Peniston blames Lily for having been conspicuous enough to provoke gossip. The mere suggestion of immorality is offensive to Lily’s aunt.