Selden wakes up early and decides he still loves Lily and wants to marry her. He heads over to Lily's apartment, but when he gets there he finds Gerty there already and distraught. She brings Selden inside, where Lily is dead in her bed. Gerty explains that Lily overdosed on sleeping medicine and then leaves Selden alone with her. Selden looks around, and sees the envelope for Gus and for a moment thinks that if Lily is leaving notes to Selden, maybe she didn't love Selden after all like he thought she did. However, after a further examination of the room, he realizes that Lily had made out a check to Gus and her checkbook balance was left at zero. He comes to the conclusion that Lily did in fact take money from Gus before, but she felt so guilty about it that she had to make amends. Selden finds peace in that last revelation about who Lily really was, and thinks that the love between them must have saved them both from complete ruin. He kneels over her dead body and finds peace in the silence alone with her.
Book 2 Ch 13
Lily is walking home and is more tired than ever, really looking forward to her sleeping medication back at home. While walking, she runs into Nettie Struther, who remembered Lily from Gerty's Girls Club because it was Lily's money that allowed Nettie to recover from her sickness and then be happy and comfortable in her life. Lily realizes the irony that it was Gus's money that saved this woman, but ruined Lily. Lily visits Nettie's apartment and thinks it is really nice and quaint, even if it is small and inexpensive. Nettie talks about how she was supposed to marry rich, but then the rich man didn't want to marry a working class girl so he left and Nettie got sick. After she got better with Lily's donation, she got married to her husband and had a baby. Lily holds Nettie's baby and feels a really strong connection with it. Nettie says that she hoped the baby ends up like Lily - Lily doesn't want that. Lily finally gets home, and looks through what she still has from her old life, such as the dress from the living art party. She receives the check of her portion of Mrs Peniton's wealth, and realizes that it felt like nothing back when she died, but now it was huge. She writes the check for Gus's debt right away so that she can't put it off, and puts it and the check from the will in different envelopes addressed to go where they need to go. She remembers holding the baby and realizes she just wants happiness but all she feels is emptiness. Lily goes to go to sleep, and even though she hasn't slept in a long time, she can't sleep. She had been taking the max dosage of the sleeping medicine, but feels she needs more, so she takes more thinking that the odds of something bad happening were too slim to worry about. She knows that she has to tell Selden something, but as she drifts off, she can't remember what it is.
Book 2 Ch 12
Lily is at Selden's apartment with him, just like the beginning of the book. She notices that the apartment hadn't changed much since then, but the two of them had changed so much. She apologizes for what she said at Mrs Hatch's place, and he says he is sorry too. Lily realizes how useless she is here, and how she only came really because she was hoping for something from him, like another declaration of love, or something she could hold on to. Lily says she has to leave, but thanks Selden for what he said way back at Bellamont, because she says that it stopped her from becoming what everyone thought she would. Selden says that that was all her, but he will help her if she still needs help. Lily remembers when Selden said that he could only help her by loving her, and realizes that she loves him. She asks Selden to build up the fire, and when he isn't looking, she throws the letters from Bertha in.
Book 2 Ch 11
Now April, Lily has been fired from her job. She sees all the people from her old life and misses it so much. She has nothing to do now that she has no job. Rosedale visits her apartment and he is shocked at the conditions she is living in. He again offers to lend her money to pay off Gus, and also offers the old marriage deal where he would marry her if she could fix things with Bertha. Lily stays awake all night thinking about it, and in the end decides that she shouldn't owe society anything so why should she protect Bertha? The next day she grabs the letters and sets out for Bertha's place. However, on the way, she thinks of Selden and what he would think of what she is doing. She feels ashamed, and decides to go visit him instead.
Book 2 Ch 10
Lily has sunk even lower in the social standings. She is now working a real job making hats. She had left Mrs Hatch a few weeks after talking with Selden, and was now being blamed by the upper class for trying to trap Bertie into such a low marriage. Mrs Fisher points out again that Lily should never have taken Gus's money, but now there is really nothing she can do but try to stay out of the upper classes way, so Gerty helped her find this hat making job. Lily really sucks at making hats though, so all the women laugh at her. Lily refills one of Mrs Hatch's old sleeping pill prescriptions that she pretends is her own, and the pharmacist warns her that it is really strong so be light in dosage. Lily runs into Rosedale one day and agrees to get tea with him. She finds herself being completely honest about all aspects of her situation. Rosedale offers to help Lily with the debt, but she declines. Later, Lily decides that the only reason she was that honest was because she doesn't really have friends to talk to anymore, and even though she has Gerty, she has been avoiding her to avoid running into Selden. Lily is starting to get very tempted by using the inheritance to start a hat shop, or using the letters from Bertha to marry Rosedale, or even just allowing Rosedale to help pay off the debt to Gus.
Book 2 Ch 9
Lily is working (!) as a secretary for Mrs Hatch, which she is fine with because it means that she can live in a hotel and be waited on and such. She is shocked by this new lower level of society, and also surprised that Mrs Hatch is such a central part of it, as well as Bertie Van Osburgh who seems to have a romance with Mrs Hatch. Lily is good at her job, but thinks that Bertie wants her to help make Mrs Hatch suitable for the higher classes, which she thinks is a hilarious thought. Selden comes and visits, and tells her she should come back and let Gerty help her rather than sinking to this low level of society. Even after Lily explains that she owes most of what she got from Mrs Peniton, he is still optimistic that Gerty can help. Lily still refuses and points out that Selden himself had said before that people like Lily's sole purpose was to live up to her upbringing, and that Lily could still do that with a little more time. Selden says that he didn't include Lily in that statement, but understands that Lily won't listen to him.
Book 2 Ch 8
So Lily hangs out with Mrs Gormer at the horse show, but she can tell that Mrs Gormer is getting ready to ditch Lily as soon as things are set with Bertha. Lily is annoyed that she didn't take Rosedale's offer because she would be so better than Bertha if she married Rosedale. Lily spends some time with Gerty, who tells her that now that Bertha is done with Ned Silverton, the Silverton sisters are poor because of Ned's gambling debts, and will soon have to actually get a job or something crazy like that. Lily knows she will soon be in a similar position. Gerty points out that Lily looks tired, and Lily says that living with the rich is expensive, and is mad that Gerty would point this out because it means that Lily is ugly in Lily's mind. Gerty is worried about Lily so she asks Selden to try to help her. Selden has been avoiding Lily but agrees to talk to her if it will help her. He is annoyed though that Lily has been living off the second class elites because that means that a life in society is even more important to her and she has less in common with him. He is also annoyed when he learns that she has moved and is now living with Mrs Hatch.
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