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She had thought that she was serious, but now she saw that she’d been trying to impress him, to show that she was as worldly as he was, and in the middle of that she had come on a rock-bottom truth, a lack of hope that was genuine, reasonable, everlasting. There was no comfort in what she saw, now that she could see it.

This quote near the end of the story marks the point where reality breaks into Grace's fantasies, grounding her as a person who needs to actually decide on a future. Grace spends most of the story gliding through her life without really committing to anything, living in her ideas of how things should be from impressions of the world through fiction and academia. This moment follows her disillusionment with Mrs. Travers, who has come back from the hospital changed for the worse, and it cements her disillusionment with the entire Travers family. She finally sees Neil’s true self, and his dark reality is no longer hidden by the facade of the family, which she had previously been buying into. At this moment, she realizes her naivety, and she sees herself as someone playing a role rather than existing as her true self.

The check was for a thousand dollars. Immediately she thought of sending it back or tearing it up, and sometimes even now she thinks that that would have been a grand thing to do. But in the end, of course, she was not able to do it. In those days, it was enough money to insure her a start in life.

As the closing lines of the story, this quote reveals that Grace has matured past naïve, romantic notions of her future and accepted that practicality sometimes trumps morality. In giving Grace this money, Mr. Travers implies that Neil may have violated Grace’s chastity. Rather than correct him, Grace understands that his perception of the situation matters less than the opportunity the money presents.  Before she experienced Neil’s trauma and alcoholism firsthand and witnessed Mrs. Travers’ mental health struggles, she may have given in to doing what seemed the morally righteous thing instead of doing what was practical. Grace’s acceptance of this morally grey reality is a milestone in her growth.

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