The House of Mirth Edith Wharton, 1905, Social Criticism
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In the peacock-blue parlour, with its bunches of dried pampas grass, anddiscoloured steel engravings of sentimental episodes, he looked about himwith unconcealed disgust, laying his hat distrustfully on the dustyconsole adorned with a Rogers statuette. The onlyhope of renewal lay in the little bottle at her bed-side; and how muchlonger that hope would last she dared not conjecture. She smiled, recognizing the heroism of the offer to the point of beingfrankly touched by it. “Thank you—I shall be very glad,” she madeanswer, in the first sincere words she had ever spoken to him. “I do mean that; Gerty told me of it,” Selden acknowledged withoutembarrassment. He was too much in earnest now to feel any falseconstraint in speaking his mind.
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Since itwas her fate to live in a boarding-house, she must learn to fall in withthe conditions of the life. Nevertheless she was glad that, when shedescended to the heat and glare of the dining-room, the repast was nearlyover. The baby, feeling herself detached from her habitual anchorage, made aninstinctive motion of resistance; but the soothing influences ofdigestion prevailed, and Lily felt the soft weight sink trustfullyagainst her breast. The child’s confidence in its safety thrilled herwith a sense of warmth and returning life, and she bent over, wonderingat the rosy blur of the little face, the empty clearness of the eyes, thevague tendrilly motions of the folding and unfolding fingers. At firstthe burden in her arms seemed as light as a pink cloud or a heap of down,but as she continued to hold it the weight increased, sinking deeper, andpenetrating her with a strange sense of weakness, as though the childentered into her and became a part of herself. A cold grey skythreatened rain, and a high wind drove the dust in wild spirals up anddown the streets.
Notes
Oh, certainly, mydear—give him an order for twelve hundred.” He continued to laugh. Mr. Bart dropped into a chair, and sat gazing absently at the fragment ofjellied salmon which the butler had placed before him. Feeling no desire for the self-communion which awaited her in her room,she lingered on the broad stairway, looking down into the hall below,where the last card-players were grouped about the tray of tall glassesand silver-collared decanters which the butler had just placed on a lowtable near the fire. Bridge at Bellomont usually lasted till the small hours; and when Lilywent to bed that night she had played too long for her own good.
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As she had lain at Gerty’s side thenight before, she had thought of his coming, and of the sweetness ofweeping out her pain upon his breast. Of course she had meant to clearherself of its consequences before she met him—she had never reallydoubted that Mrs. Peniston would come to her aid. And she had felt, evenin the full storm of her misery, that Selden’s love could not be herultimate refuge; only it would be so sweet to take a moment’s shelterthere, while she gathered fresh strength to go on. Hisreasoned-out resistances seemed for the moment so much less importantthan the question as to when Lily would receive his note! He yieldedhimself to the charm of trivial preoccupations, wondering at what hourher reply would be sent, with what words it would begin. As to its importhe had no doubt—he was as sure of her surrender as of his own.
But Gerty Farish’s words had sufficed to make him see how little thisview was really his, and how impossible it was for him to live quietlywith the thought of Lily Bart. To hear that she was in need of help—evensuch vague help as he could offer—was to be at once repossessed by thatthought; and by the time he reached the street he had sufficientlyconvinced himself of the urgency of his cousin’s appeal to turn his stepsdirectly toward Lily’s hotel. Selden, with a slight laugh, sat down beside her on the little sofa whichprojected from the hearth. Selden’s perceptible pause gave her time for a slight stir of surprise.
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She spreads false rumors that besmirch Lily's virtue among their friends. Lily, as an unmarried woman without a protector, has little she can do in her own defense. The pièce de résistance of this highly successful event turns out to be the portrayal of Mrs. Lloyd in Sir Joshua Reynolds' famous 18th-century painting (1775–1776). For better or for worse, she has transitioned from a marriageable "girl" to a not-quite-reputable woman similar to Carry Fisher. Yet she does not do as Carry Fisher does and accept the loss of her respectability as the price, she must pay to maintain a position in society. At the time the novel takes place, Old New York high society was peopled by the extraordinarily wealthy who were conditioned by the economic and social changes the Gilded Age (1870–1900) wrought.
In her strange state ofextra-lucidity, which gave her the sense of being already at the heart ofthe situation, it seemed incredible that any one should think itnecessary to linger in the conventional outskirts of word-play andevasion. 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.
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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. On the train to Bellomont, Lily sits next to Percy Gryce, a rich but boring man whom she tries to seduce so that he will offer to marry her. During Lily’s stay at Bellomont, her efforts to attract Gryce’s attention and respect seem to succeed until Lawrence Selden unexpectedly arrives. Intrigued by Selden’s presence, Lily wants to find out if Selden has come for her or for Bertha Dorset, with whom he previously had an affair. When Lily and Selden go on a walk, Selden admits to Lily that he only came for her, and Lily feels that she is falling in love with him. However, the two of them only talk about marrying each other in a playful tone and do not discuss the matter further.
She loosened her furs and settled herself in Gerty’s easy-chair, whileher friend busied herself with the tea-cups. She spoke with the noble directness which she could command on suchoccasions, and which was like a large steady light thrown across thetortuous darkness of the situation. In its inconvenient brightnessRosedale seemed to waver a moment, as though conscious that every avenueof escape was unpleasantly illuminated. She paused a moment, moved in spite of herself by this reminder of herinfluence over him.
It widened as she turned to go, and no one advanced tofill it up. She paused a moment, glancing about her, calmly taking themeasure of her situation. Here there could be no mistaking the predominance of personality—theunanimous “Oh! ” of the spectators was a tribute, not to the brush-work ofReynolds’s “Mrs.
The cares of a large party always prevailedover personal feelings, and Lily saw no change in her hostess’s manner.Nevertheless, she was soon aware that the experiment of coming toBellomont was destined not to be successful. The party was made up ofwhat Mrs. Trenor called “poky people”—her generic name for persons whodid not play bridge—and, it being her habit to group all suchobstructionists in one class, she usually invited them together,regardless of their other characteristics. In such emergencies, Judy would usually have turned toLily to fuse the discordant elements; and Miss Bart, assuming that such aservice was expected of her, threw herself into it with her accustomedzeal.
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