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The poor thingwas probably dazzled by such an unwonted apparition. Miss Bart was not familiar withthe moral code of bachelors’ flat-houses, and her colour rose again as itoccurred to her that the woman’s persistent gaze implied a groping amongpast associations. But she put aside the thought with a smile at her ownfears, and hastened downward, wondering if she should find a cab short ofFifth Avenue. “Don’t you see,” she continued, “that there are men enough to saypleasant things to me, and that what I want is a friend who won’t beafraid to say disagreeable ones when I need them? Sometimes I havefancied you might be that friend—I don’t know why, except that you areneither a prig nor a bounder, and that I shouldn’t have to pretend withyou or be on my guard against you.” Her voice had dropped to a note ofseriousness, and she sat gazing up at him with the troubled gravity of achild. The next day, people discover that Lily has died from her drug overdose.
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Now, her only hope to stay in upper-class society is to marry a rich and powerful man, so that she can acquire the social credit and financial clout she needs to lead a luxurious life. Evie Van Osburgh—A young, innocent, dull, and conservative, stay-at-home kind of a girl, heiress to a substantial fortune. Judy Trenor paired her sister, Gwen, with Percy Gryce at the Sunday-night supper at Bellomont. Evie ends up getting engaged within six weeks of their stay at Bellomont to Percy Gryce due to Bertha Dorset's match-making skills. Percy Gryce—A conservative, rich, but shy and unimaginative young eligible bachelor on whom Lily, with the support of her friend Judy Trenor, sets her sights. Percy's less than titillating personality notwithstanding, Lily works out a strategy to catch him at week-long festivities at Bellomont.
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It was understood thatMiss Bart should fill the gap in such emergencies, and she usuallyrecognized the obligation without a murmur. Itseemed to her natural that Lily should spend all her money on dress, andshe supplemented the girl’s scanty income by occasional “handsomepresents” meant to be applied to the same purpose. Lily, who wasintensely practical, would have preferred a fixed allowance; but Mrs.Peniston liked the periodical recurrence of gratitude evoked byunexpected cheques, and was perhaps shrewd enough to perceive that such amethod of giving kept alive in her niece a salutary sense of dependence. Thedisgusting part of it was that many of these cousins were rich, so thatLily imbibed the idea that if people lived like pigs it was from choice,and through the lack of any proper standard of conduct. This gave her asense of reflected superiority, and she did not need Mrs. Bart’s commentson the family frumps and misers to foster her naturally lively taste forsplendour. She returned a sympathetic enquiry, and gradually he was drawn on to talkof his latest purchases.
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Selden, immersed in his work, had told himself thatexternal conditions did not matter to a man in his state, and that coldand ugliness were a good tonic for relaxed sensibilities. It lay heavier when the postman’s last ring brought no note for her, andshe had to go upstairs to a lonely night—a night as grim and sleeplessas her tortured fancy had pictured it to Gerty. She had never learned tolive with her own thoughts, and to be confronted with them through suchhours of lucid misery made the confused wretchedness of her previousvigil seem easily bearable. He leaned forward a little, resting his hands on the head of hiswalking-stick. He had seen men of Ned Van Alstyne’s type bring their hatsand sticks into a drawing-room, and he thought it added a touch ofelegant familiarity to their appearance. Doubtless he had beendetained, or had misread her hurriedly scrawled note, taking the four fora five.
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Carry believes Lily's two possibilities for marriage are George Dorset and Simon Rosedale. George asks Lily for the truth about his wife Bertha's infidelities, but she denies any knowledge of them. He has found out about Bertha's letters and advises Lily to use them to force Bertha to restore her social standing. He offers to marry Lily once she and Bertha are reconciled, but Lily refuses. He raised the lid of the desk, and saw within it a cheque-book and a fewpackets of bills and letters, arranged with the orderly precision whichcharacterized all her personal habits. He looked through the lettersfirst, because it was the most difficult part of the work.
She had allowed herself time to walk to Mrs. Dorset’s, thinking that thequick movement through the cold evening air would help to steady hernerves; but she really felt no need of being tranquillized. Regina’s she hadspent her days in the streets, partly to escape from the uncongenialpromiscuities of the boarding-house, and partly in the hope that physicalfatigue would help her to sleep. But once out of the house, she could notdecide where to go; for she had avoided Gerty since her dismissal fromthe milliner’s, and she was not sure of a welcome anywhere else. As she turned homeward her thoughts shrank in anticipation from the factthat there would be nothing to get up for the next morning.
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In the coldslant of light reflected from the back wall of a neighbouring building,she saw her evening dress and opera cloak lying in a tawdry heap on achair. Finery laid off is as unappetizing as the remains of a feast, andit occurred to Lily that, at home, her maid’s vigilance had always sparedher the sight of such incongruities. Her body ached with fatigue, andwith the constriction of her attitude in Gerty’s bed. All through hertroubled sleep she had been conscious of having no space to toss in, andthe long effort to remain motionless made her feel as if she had spenther night in a train. For a moment her heart beat incoherently, thenshe felt the sobering touch of fact, and remembered that such calls werenot unknown in her charitable work. She flung on her dressing-gown toanswer the summons, and unlocking her door, confronted the shining visionof Lily Bart.
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Ned's increasing gambling addiction consumes not only his resources but that of his sisters, who live in poverty while he travels with Bertha Dorset. After the fling with Bertha ends, Ned participates in a scheme to help a purportedly wealthy but disreputable woman to marry the younger brother of Gwen and Evie Van Osburgh. This conspiracy, in which Lily is implicated, helps ensure Lily's downfall. Her tears had risen again, and in drawing out herhandkerchief her fingers touched the packet in the folds of her dress. She struck westward through the dreary March twilight, toward the streetwhere her boarding-house stood.
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Mrs. Peniston, who was a conscientious woman, hadforwarded them all to Bellomont. It had been preceded byan equal zeal for socialism, which had in turn replaced an energeticadvocacy of Christian Science. Mrs. Fisher was small, fiery and dramatic;and her hands and eyes were admirable instruments in the service ofwhatever causes she happened to espouse. She had, however, the faultcommon to enthusiasts of ignoring any slackness of response on the partof her hearers, and Lily was amused by her unconsciousness of theresistance displayed in every angle of Mr. Gryce’s attitude.
She had learnedthe value of contrast in throwing her charms into relief, and was fullyaware of the extent to which Mrs. Fisher’s volubility was enhancing herown repose. The provoking part was that Lily knew all this—knew how easy it wouldhave been to silence him on the spot, and how difficult it might be to doso afterward. Mr. Simon Rosedale was a man who made it his business toknow everything about every one, whose idea of showing himself to be athome in society was to display an inconvenient familiarity with thehabits of those with whom he wished to be thought intimate. Lily was surethat within twenty-four hours the story of her visiting her dress-makerat the Benedick would be in active circulation among Mr. Rosedale’sacquaintances.
A rapid shower had cooled the air, and clouds still hung refreshinglyover the moist street. Eventually, Lily receives a ten-thousand-dollar inheritance following Julia's death, which she uses to repay Gus. Distraught by her misfortunes, Lily is now crippled by drug dependence.
Horrified at this idea and scared about being trapped alone in Gus’s house, Lily insists on leaving. When Gus finally gives in and Lily steps out of the house into a cab, she believes she sees a familiar figure at the corner of the street, but does not pay attention to it. After Lily takes her leave from Selden, she runs into Simon Rosedale, a rich man who is desperate to enter the high society Lily belongs to. As Rosedale makes sly comments about the fact that Lily must have just left Selden’s apartment, Lily invents an excuse about going to her dress-maker. The excuse backfires against her, as Rosedale owns the Benedick, the apartment complex where Selden lives, and knows that there is no dress-maker there. Lily then hurries off to the train station, rejecting Rosedale’s offers to accompany her.
Theyseemed only to throw her own exceptionalness into becoming relief, andgive a soaring vastness to her scheme of life. “It’s you who are the coward,” he repeated, catching her hands in his. “That’s what I told you—you’re so sure of me that you can amuse yourselfwith experiments.” She drew back the hand he had regained, and satlooking down on him sadly. It was her turn to look at him with surprise; and after a moment—“Do youwant to marry me? It was for a moment only, however; for when he leaned nearer and drewdown her hands with a gesture less passionate than grave, she turned onhim a face softened but not disfigured by emotion, and he said tohimself, somewhat cruelly, that even her weeping was an art. ” The slow colour rose toher cheek, not a blush of excitement but drawn from the deep wells offeeling; it was as if the effort of her spirit had produced it.
Once she has repaid all her debts, Lily takes an overdose and dies; perhaps it is suicide, perhaps an accident. As she is dying, she hallucinates cradling Nettie's baby in her arms. That very morning, Lawrence arrives at her quarters, to finally propose marriage, but finds Lily dead. Among her belongings are bank receipts proving her dealings with Gus were honorable and that the rumors that destroyed her were false from the beginning. This realization allows him to feel sympathy for her, and he is clearly distraught at her death. Lily is stopped on the street by Nettie Struther, who Lily once helped get to a hospital.
It was the first time shehad received a direct communication from Bellomont since the close of herlast visit there, and she was still visited by the dread of havingincurred Judy’s displeasure. But this characteristic command seemed toreestablish their former relations; and Lily smiled at the thought thather friend had probably summoned her in order to hear about the Brys’entertainment. Mrs. Trenor had absented herself from the feast, perhapsfor the reason so frankly enunciated by her husband, perhaps because, asMrs. Lily was quite ready to gratify this curiosity, butit happened that she was dining out. She determined, however, to see Mrs.Trenor for a few moments, and ringing for her maid she despatched atelegram to say that she would be with her friend that evening at ten. Youpromised once to help me,” she continued in the same tone, as though thewords were drawn from her unwillingly.
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