A Chance Encounter at Grand Central — The House of Mirth

Lily Bart runs into Lawrence Selden in the afternoon rush at Grand Central. It is a Monday in early September. He is returning from a hurried dip into the country and cannot account for her being in town. She has missed the three-fifteen to Rhinebeck on her way from Tuxedo to the Trenors at Bellomont. Her maid has already gone ahead. Her aunt's house is closed. She consults the jewelled watch among her laces: two hours remain until the half-past-five train. Selden suggests tea at Sherry's. Lily grimaces at the Monday crowd and accepts a quieter cup at his bachelor flat in the Benedick.

Their talk turns honest fast. Lily jokes about sitting out a train the way one sits out a cotillion, then says she wants a friend who will tell her disagreeable truths. She is horribly poor and very expensive. She threw away chances when she first came out, including Dillworth, whose mother feared reset jewels and a redone drawing-room. A woman is asked out for her clothes as much as for herself. Selden works and likes the law. When she asks if he would marry to get out of the grind, he laughs and says God forbid.

Lily studies his shelves and asks about Americana. Selden is not a collector of that kind. He says old Jefferson Gryce never sat up reading the rare volumes either. Buyers pay for rarity, not for use. Lily cannot live like Gerty Farish in a flat where the cook does the washing and the food tastes of soap. She cannot keep up appearances alone. The hour feels rare in her managed life, and she knows a girl must marry if she wants a way out.

On the stairs a charwoman pauses over her pail and stares as Lily gathers her skirts to pass. Outside, Simon Rosedale catches her leaving the Benedick and asks if she has been shopping. She claims a dress-maker. He owns the building, remarks that he did not know there were dress-makers in it, and smiles at the lie. He offers to take her to the five-forty. A hansom drifts down Madison Avenue. She hails it, refuses his hand, and springs in.