The House of Mirth
Edith Wharton
After Bertha ruining Lily's chances of marrying Gryce, naturally there had to be an opportunity for Lily to get back at Bertha. Mrs. Haffen pops into Lily's house with letters written to Lawrence Selden from Bertha Dorset. The letters are not signed though, so Lily believes that Mrs. Haffen thinks she wrote them. Lily received the letters, but I'm not sure how she would use them to get back at Bertha besides showing them to everyone, but that does not seem like Lily something Lily would do. She seems a person who likes to be considered classy and performing the previous seems tacky.
"'I hear Gus pulled off a nice little pile for you last month'" (Wharton, 92). Rosedale is a man whose name is very large in society; his name paired with Lily's would be beneficial for both in increasing their social standings. Rosedale seems to know a lot more about Lily than she realizes, and a lot about the society in general. Though Lily is not fond of Rosedale, he may keep using him simply for his name. Later, Lily learns that Trenor is getting upset because they have not spent much time together, and he thinks he is avoiding her. There has to be more to that situation than the story at this point portrays, but the possibilities of the direction the story could go are numerous. Rosedale knows too much for his own good, Trenor is getting upset over nothing, and Selden seems to be fading into the background, but he cannot remain there simply because he is supposed to be the one for Lily (in my opinion anyway).
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