Book 2 Ch 14

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.

Book 2 Ch 7

Carry invites Lily and Rosedale over, clearly to try to help Lily get married. Lily takes a walk with Rosedale and says that she is ready to marry him if he is. Rosedale says that he no longer wants to marry Lily, but wouldn't mind just hanging out. Lily was like no thanks, that won't work for me. Rosedale explains that he needs to marry someone that can keep him in good social standing, and Lily has relinquished that position. He says that if she makes up with Bertha he would marry her. He suggests using the letters, which Lily didn't even know he knew about. Lily says no to using the letters, keeping on that moral high ground she has clung so tightly to recently. Rosedale thinks that Lily refuses because Seldon also features in the letters, so he is mad. They both leave apparently deciding that it isn't going to work.

Book 2 Ch 6

Lily bumps into George on a stroll. George is desperate for an excuse to leave his marriage and begs Lily to testify that Bertha did indeed cheat on him. Lily is super tempted, especially thinking about the letters to Seldon, but still refuses. When Lily got back to the Gormers house, Mrs Gormer mentions that Bertha visited. Lily knew that Bertha would only visit with an agenda, and she realizes that Bertha is trying to rid Lily of the few friends she had because if Mrs Gormer becomes Bertha's friend, she would be forced to leave Lily behind. Lily goes back to the city and finds herself a hotel, but realizes that based on her finances, she has to marry Rosedale and fast. George visits again, but Lily still refuses to admit anything about Bertha's affair.

Book 2 Ch 5

Lily doesn't really know what to do at this point, but luckily Carry Fisher comes to the rescue. She has started helping the Gormers, a second tier family, move up in social standing, so invites Lily to dinner with them. Then later, Carry tells Lily that Carry had two offers for the summer, with the Brys and the Gormers, and because she decided to go with the Brys, Lily can go with the Gormers instead, explaining that it will give the elites a chance to miss Lily and want her back after the scandal has died down. Lily enjoys Alaska, but misses her old group. She stays with the Gormers after the Alaska trip anyway though because she has nowhere else. Carry later tells Lily that Lily has to get married as soon as possible, either to George Dorset or to Simon Rosedale. Lily says no to George because she didn't want to break up a marriage, but she is not as opposed to Rosedale as before. She decides to try to win Rosedale over with love because she can no longer offer him social standing.

Book 2 Ch 4

Lily returns to New York from Europe where Mrs Peniton has died. Everyone assumes that Mrs Peniton had left her whole estate to Lily, but because she had heard (and disapproved of) Lily's gambling, she only left $10,000 to Lily and the rest to Grace Stepney. Lily watches everyone leave and realizes that she is now insignificant to all the important people. Lily goes back to Gerty's house, and Gerty is completely on her side. Lily knows that everyone will believe Bertha's side of the Dorset drama because Lily is poor. Lily makes it a priority to get back in Judy's favor, and she knows that means paying back Gus as soon as possible. However, there is a delay with the will that could take up to a year so she can't. She tries to ask Grace for a loan, and then asks Grace to borrow on her behalf, but Grace refuses because she didn't want to shame Mrs Peniton's memory by borrowing because she hated debt. So Lily is in a sticky situation for the time being.

Book 2 Ch 3

Lily asks Selden for help with the whole Dorset thing. Selden feels bad that Lily will get caught in the cross fire, because he knows as well as everyone that the whole thing is Bertha's fault. He also notices that when he talked to to George, he seemed a lot calmer, and he didn't think it was his doing. Lily also noticed that Ned was absent from their company randomly so that might be a thing. Everyone goes to an important dinner that night. Selden observes Lily some more, and admires her beauty again, but decides that he is now over her. At the end of the meal, Bertha announces that Lily was not coming back on the yacht with the Dorsets. Lily tries to make it not a big deal by saying she had business in the early morning anyway. Once outside, Lily begs Selden to help her find a place to stay without rising scandal. Selden suggests Jack's, and Lily wants anything else, but Selden doesn't offer any other solutions. He talks to Jack and Jack agrees to the arrangement as long as Lily is out first thing in the morning and Gwen doesn't know about it at all.

Book 2 Ch 2

Lily is grateful for the invitation with the Dorsets because being away from New York makes her Gus problem feel a lot less relevant. Also, she is well liked in Europe so she loves that. She is supposed to try to get the Dorsets invited to things and to destract George Dorset, but many of the high up people don't like Bertha so her job is getting more difficult. Carey is doing the same job for the Brys, but then the Brys got mad at Carey, so Carey talked with Lily and passed along that opportunity to her. Lily immediately makes nice with Mrs Brys so things are good for the moment, that is until she returns to the Dorset's yacht and sees George upset that Bertha didn't return til the morning and how he wants a divorce, regardless of what Lily says. Then when Bertha hears, she blames it all on Lily so that happened I guess. Lily knows it is ridiculous but doesn't know what she can do about the accusations so just leaves it.

Book 2 Ch 1

The whole gang runs into each other in Europe – Selden, who was alone, then the group of the Brys and Carey Fisher, and then of course the Dorsets accompanied by Lily and Ned. Selden is mad at Lily and is annoyed that he can't seem to get away from her, and even worse – he still loves her. He is talking with Carey and they discuss how Lily keeps messing up marriage propositions to rich men – Carey says she thinks Lily secretly doesn't want the life she is running after. Selden then decides to leave for Nice, and of course runs into the Dorsets and Lily and Ned on the train. He studies Lily and concludes that she seems to just be lending herself out to people, and doesn't seem youthful anymore. Later on, he sees Bertha and Ned getting into a cab together also.

Chapter 15

The next morning Lily feels better so she thanks Gerty and heads home. She crunches the numbers and realizes that she probably owes Gus close to $9000 dollars. She tries to get help from Mrs Peniston, but not wanting to explain the whole situation, she says that it is gambling debt. Mrs Peniston hates gambling so refused to pay. Lily becomes desperate for Selden's help, and waits for him to show up. When he doesn't show up, she checks the social papers and sees he has left the country. Rosedale shows up and says that he wants to marry Lily, and he is ok with the fact that Lily doesn't love him. Lily doesn't want to, but she is smart enough to say she will think about it. Later, when she learns about Selden, she begins to write a letter to Rosedale, but is interrupted by an invitation from Bertha to go on a cruise with her and George in the Caribbean.  

Chapter 14

This chapter opens on Gerty, on the morning of the Brys live art party. Gerty is in a great mood because she likes Selden and he asked her to dinner that night. Selden though has spent the whole day thinking about Lily, and how she is sure to agree to marry him. When Selden and Gerty have dinner, Gerty realizes that Selden likes Lily and gets angry. Selden leaves dinner to try to find Lily. He goes to the Fisher's dinner, but there learns that she has just left to visit Judy. The guests at the Fishers are talking about the rumors of Gus and Lily, and how Rosedale wants to marry Lily. Selden gets angered by these rumors. He goes on a walk with Ned, and they pass the Trenors and seeing the house dark, assume that Judy can't be there and therefore Lily wouldn't be there. However, as they are standing outside, they see Lily burst out the doors and rush into a cab. The men agree to keep this to themselves. Meanwhile, Lily arrives at Gerty's, and Gerty, seeing how distressed Lily is, forgets her earlier anger. Lily spends the night there because she doesn't want to be alone after what just happened.  

Chapter 13

After the party, Lily has two notes waiting for her, from Judy and Selden, both asking to see her at various times. Lily is a bit annoyed at Selden's note because she has made it clear that she doesn't want to marry him, but she says she will meet him anyway. Later on that night, she heads over to Judy's house to see her. When she gets there, she is met by Gus, who says that Judy is in bed and feels sick, and he keeps trying to change the subject. He talks about how he has given Lily so much money and she owes him, and implies she needs to pay it back with sex. Lily gets uncomfortable (with good reason) and demands that she go get Judy. Gus then reveals that Judy isn't even home, and the note was a trick to get Lily to come to his house alone. He also reveals that he knows Lily visited Selden alone that one time. Lily is outraged and says that if she owes him money she will pay him back in money, and runs out. Not knowing where to go, she goes to Gerty's house, because Gerty is always nice to her.  

Chapter 12

Lily is becoming good friends with Bertha, mainly because Bertha needs someone to distract her husband while she flirts with Ned, but Lily is ok with this because this arrangement keeps her in good social standing. Gus is becoming increasingly possessive of Lily. Judy hadn't yet invited Lily back to Bellamont, so Lily was worried Judy had heard the rumors about her and Gus, but Lily asked Judy about it and was immediately invited. While there though, Lily realized she was being scrutinized so tried her best to stay away from Gus. Once she gets back to town, the Brys are having a party with live art, meaning beautiful fashionable ladies posing. Lily is chosen as one of the women. Selden goes and realizes that he loves Lily. He sneaks out to the garden with her, kisses her, and tells her this, but Lily says he shouldn't tell her that and runs away. Selden then goes back inside, and hears Gus being posessive again saying Lily shouldn't put her beauty on display for everyone like that.

Chapter 11

There was a fall on Wall Street, which left most people feeling poorer than usual, most everyone except Rosedale and Bry. Because Rosedale is still rich, he is getting more popular, but he still likes having Lily with him. Now that the holidays are over, it is time for the real social season. Mrs Peniston invites Jack and Gwen over for dinner, now that they are back from their honey moon. She also invites Grace, one of her friends who is normally socially ignored. However, Lily convinces her to change her mind and retracts the invitation. Grace is enraged and begins to want revenge. She goes to Mrs Peniston and starts spreading the rumors about Lily and Gus. Mrs Peniston didn't believe it because she paid Lily's expenses, until Grace mentioned Lily's gambling debts. This made Mrs Peniston very uncomfortable, and while she still didn't believe the rumors, she still didn't like the implications.

Chapter 10

Lily continues to spend her money that she is getting from Gus's investments, not just on dresses and things, but also on charity that Gerty introduced to her. Lily gets invited to spend Thanksgiving at the Bry's house, a party organized by Carey Fisher because Mrs Bry uses Carey to pull her up the social ladder. Lily goes with them for thanksgiving and comes back happy. Rosedale then pays her a visit and manipulates her into agreeing to go to the opera with him by making her nervous about the stock market. At the opera, Lily is admired by all, and Gus gets mad that he doesn't get any special privileges with her because he is financing her. They argue for a bit until George Dorset turns up and says that his wife Bertha wants to be friends with Lily again, which Lily is open too because at this point she doesn't want revenge, she just wants friendship. How nice.

Chapter 9

Lily is back with her aunt. She passes a rude charwoman on the stairs, who turns out to be the same rude charwoman from the Bendick when Lily visited Selden. Later on, that charwoman comes to the door with a package of sorts wrapped in newspaper. In the package is love letters from Bertha to Seldon, that were just slightly ripped up. The charwoman wants to sell them to Lily because she thinks they are from her. They are not from her (obviously), but Lily buys them anyway so they don't get into the wrong hands, for Selden's sake. She buys them without any intentions to use them in any evil way, even though it would help her seen as Bertha screwed her over. Mrs. Peniton (Lily's aunt) comes home then and starts talking about the wedding again, and then about Percy's engagement to Evie. She mentions that Bertha had helped arrange it, which made Lily mad again and decides to not burn the letters as she was thinking, but keep them just in case they come in handy.

Chapter 8

Lily gets paid back almost instantly from the investment Gus arranged with a $1000 check. She starts paying back debts she owed to dressmakers and stuff, but also places more orders so it didn't do much. Meanwhile, her cousin Jack is getting married. Lily declined being a bridesmaid because she wants to be the bride in the next wedding she takes part in. She sees Percy and wants to win him back, but she also sees Selden who she doesn't want to talk to because she lost Percy because of him. She gets to talking with Gerty Farish who is super excited about everything at the wedding. However, Gerty also mentions that Percy had been all over Evie Van Osburgh, which really sucks for Lily because not only does this mean that she may be too late to mend things with Percy, but that his money was going to waste because Evie was rich enough that she didn't need his money. Then Gus comes over and acts like he and Lily are best friends, and asks her to come back to Bellamont, to which Lily says she can't. Instead, Gus asks Lily to be nice to Rosedale because he helps him get good investments. Lily is a bit disctracted thinking about how to win back Percy, but she agrees. Selden comes over too which was a bit awkward. At first Lily didn't want to talk to Rosedale with Selden around, but the Rosedale offhandedly mentions the lie she told him outside the Benedick so she agrees to go off and talk to him. Then they run into Mrs. Van Osburgh, who says that Percie and Evie just got married. Great.  

Chapter 7

Because Lily took Selden away from Bertha the other day, she decided to retaliate. She went and told Percy all the dirt about Lily and scared him away so he left Bellamont. Then to Lily's face she was all like “Wow weird that he left. Wonder why....” Lily is very upset, and rightfully so because she just lost her chances with a really rich single man, meaning she just lost a very rich life, which is enough to ruin anyone's day. Judy sends Lily to pick up Gus, and on the way back Gus is talking about work. Then Lily gets a great idea to relieve her debt a little bit – she starts complaining (but in a beautiful tragic way, not an annoying way) about her financial situation, and Gus, who works in the stock market, offers (as Lily knew he would) to take her money and help her invest it to help her earn some. Lily is delighted (because it was her idea) and gratefully accepts his help.

Chapter 6

Lily decides to walk with Selden and not Percy, so she makes up some excuse about a headache or something. On their walk, they flirt a little, but then get to really deep talking. They talk about what success means, and their answers really described who they are as a character. Lily says success is getting the most out of life. Selden says success is personal freedom. Lily says she only finds personal freedom around Selden, and Selden agrees that it would be hard to find if she marries a rich man. Lily reflects on whether she loves Selden or not, and they both talk about what if the two of them married. Selden knew he couldn't offer her anything in comparison to all the rich men, but he would if he could. They both agree that if they married, Lily would not be able to continue her lavish lifestyle, which she would not like, so they drop it and begin to walk back.

Chapter 5

So. Sunday Morning at Bellamont. The goodie-goodies are heading off to church, a group that of course includes Percy Gryce. Lily was thinking this could be the perfect opportunity to finally get him to propose, because what makes a man want to marry a woman more than seeing her in modest clothing praying at church? Thats right – nothing. Except, Lily ruined that plan because she wanted to sleep instead. She convinced herself that it was all good because now Percy will just miss her and then love her even more when they walk later. So Lily goes downstairs and runs into Seldon and Bertha in the library, obviously interrupting something. Lily says she is walking to church and leaves really mad that Seldon obviously came for Bertha. On her way to church, Seldon catches up to her and they start flirting. Then they see the company that actually went to church approaching on their way back and Seldon asks Lily to walk with him later. Even though she already made plans to walk with Percy. Sounds scandalous.  

Chapter 4 of Lily's Life

So Chapter 4. Sounds interesting. Let's investigate.

Lily wakes up and sees that Judy (owner of the Bellamont estate) asked her to come and help write thank you notes. Lily is not down for that because sleep tho and also writing notes sounds hella boring, but she can't say no because she has no money so she completely dependent on her friends.

So she goes and helps with the notes, and while they write, Judy and Lily gossip. Now Judy is the top of the elitist food chain - she dictates whatever goes on. She does something, everyone follows. She considers Lily to be her best friend, but mainly only because Lily is the least likely to go against Judy of all the women in the circle.

They talk about Carey Fisher and how she is not cool because she has divorced twice and takes money from all the rich men, but Judy still invites her places because she occupies Judy's husband Gus so Judy can do whatever she wants. 

Judy also compares Bertha Dorset to Lily, saying that lily was way more pretty and smart, but Bertha was mean so she got what she wanted. Lily was a little salty about this conversation though because she didn't want anyone's advice on how to live her life.

Even though she doesn't want help, Lily does think about how hard it is to be in her situation. Even if she was just a boy, it would be so much easier. She could be like Jack, and marry past his prime for wealth no problem. Or like Nat Silverton, and be poor and lose money and play bridge and not be considered a burden. But unfortunately, she is a girl, and the world is sexist. :(

Chapter 3 Scandal Update

Hello friends. Time to pick up where we left off in the scandalous lives of New York's elite.

When we left off, Lily was on the train to Bellamont, where she was talking to Percy Gryce, or at least she WAS talking to him until that flirt Bertha Dorset showed up. Lily is unfazed though, because Bertha is already married to George Dorset so all of her flirting means nothing.

Anyway, chapter 3 opens after the first day at Bellamont. Lily has lost almost all her money playing bridge so she only has $20 left! :O She can't stop playing bridge though because then she would be bad company and not get invited anywhere. Not only did she lose all her money, but Bertha was still flirting with Percy, which would make anyone irritated!

Losing all her money makes her think about her childhood when she had money. Her family didn't have much, but her mom always found ways to make it look like they did, while her father worked himself to a pulp trying to provide for their expensive taste. Then, one day he came home and he was ruined. He died shortly after. Lily's mom was so disgusted by poverty that she died soon after too.

The only thing Lily had left was her face to win herself a rich husband. That, and some rich relatives that took her in to make themselves look charitable.

So that's all for chapter 3. Stay tuned for more scandal.

Chapter 2 Summary/Analysis

Chapter 1 Summary/Analysis