Summary
Lily, having spent the night at the Bellomont, is asked
to join Mrs. Trenor in the morning to help her write some correspondence. Although
Lily would rather not, she remembers that she is dependent on Mrs.
Trenor for social standing and does not want to upset her. The two
gossip extensively while they write dinner cards, providing the
reader with information about the politics and current events of
the social group. In particular, we learn that Gwen Van Osburgh
was not entertained by the party, Alice Wetherall and her husband
were invited by mistake, and that Maria Van Osburgh was infuriated
because Mrs. Trenor's party "stole" guests from a party that she
herself was throwing that week, including Lady Cressida Raith, an
enormous bore and hypocrite whom Mrs. Trenor now dislikes. Bertha
Dorset is also upset with Mrs. Trenor because she came to the party
under the assumption that Selden would be present, and when he failed
to attend, Bertha suspected that Mrs. Trenor had lied to her and
not even invited Selden.
Lily confesses to Mrs. Trenor that she is interested in
a marriage to Percy Gryce, largely because of his finances and good
societal standing. We learn later that Lily believes that she will
almost inevitably marry Gryce, thinking she has him under her control.
Later, Selden joins the party at the Bellomont, and after
Lily goes to the library and finds Selden and Mrs. Dorset alone
together, she suspects that Selden has really come to the Bellomont
just to see Mrs. Dorset. Selden later confesses that he came solely
because he wanted to see Lily. In the presence of Selden, Lily begins
to examine her own social world and wishes that like Selden, she
were detached from it.
The end of Chapter Five and all of Chapter Six focus on
a walk that Lily and Selden take together after church ends on Sunday. They
discuss a number of details about their lives and also share some
of their philosophies on money, success and society. Selden says
that he believes Lily is interested in Gryce, who left the Bellomont
after Lily canceled their plans to go on a walk together (so that
she could secretly spend time with Selden instead). We learn also
that Lily has once before been in love several years before the action
of the novel to a man named Herbert Melson, who ended up marrying
the oldest Van Osburgh daughter.
Lily confesses to Selden that she knows her quest for
better social status will not necessarily bring her true happiness.
However, she and Selden agree that they will not marry one another.
However, just as they are drifting towards what could be a confession
of love for one another, they hear a car start its engine nearby,
which reminds Lily that she must return to the Bellomont before
people question her whereabouts.
Commentary
The gossiping between Mrs. Trenor and Lily in Chapter
Four provides the reader with some clues about the role of family
in the society. Many of the female characters have been through
at least one divorce; Mrs. Trenor mentions that between the Winton
and Farley families there are "five divorces and six sets of children."
This is Wharton's method of foreshadowing that The House
of Mirth will not follow the conventional form of the novel
of manners (see "The Novel of Manners" section), which normally
does not feature divorces or broken homes. Because not all characters
meet with happy endings, we begin to suspect that despite a relatively
promising future, Lily also will fail in her attempts at securing
happiness. The fact that Lily already failed once in love when she
fell for Herbert Melson is another clue that Lily does not and will
not meet with success in love.
