On the Casino steps at Monte Carlo, Lawrence Selden feels the place shape itself to his mood after months of hard work. Carry Fisher hails him and pulls him into a starving debate about where to lunch with Mrs. Jack Stepney, Mrs. Wellington Bry, and Lord Hubert Dacey. From a window over the harbour they watch pleasure-craft until a great steam-yacht draws their eyes from the peas. Jack Stepney and Lord Hubert name it at once: the Sabrina. The Dorsets were meant to spend a month in Sicily. They have come back early, with Lily Bart aboard.
After the Stepneys leave for Nice and Mr. Bry goes to his pigeon-shoot, Carry takes Selden to a bench above the sea and makes the bargain plain. Lily is there to occupy George while Bertha Dorset keeps Ned Silverton in the acute stage. Carry adds an older story. At Aix a young man made a scandal, men quarrelled, and people looked at Lily so queerly that Mrs. Peniston had to pack up, still believing the waters had not suited her. Sometimes, Carry says, Lily works like a slave and then oversleeps the harvest. Sometimes she despises the things she is trying for.
Selden tells himself he is healed and takes the express for Nice so that he will not have to see her. Before the train starts, the very face he is fleeing appears at the carriage door. Lily, the Dorsets, young Silverton, and Lord Hubert spring in, hastening to an improvised dinner with the Duchess and a water-fete in the bay. Opposite him in the afternoon light, her beauty has lost the old transparency. The surface looks sealed. She is perfect to everyone: subservient to Bertha, watchful of George's moods, brightly companionable to Silverton and Dacey. On the Promenade des Anglais, Silverton hangs on Selden with dark talk of poisoned marriages.
That night, after illuminated boats and band-music on the Promenade, Selden drops into a moonlit side street and sees two figures come out of the shadows, signal a cab, and drive toward town. The moonlight shows Mrs. Dorset and Ned Silverton. At the club he finds Lord Hubert behind a dwindling heap of gold. On the deserted terrace Lord Hubert looks at his watch, says he lost the Duchess and Miss Bart in the crowd, and adds that the whole situation is a little mixed. There used to be an aunt somewhere, great at bridging chasms she did not see. In New York, is she? Pity New York is such a long way off.
Coming Up in Chapter 17
Lily comes on deck late the next morning and finds the Sabrina empty. The chairs under the awning have not been used. A steward says Mrs. Dorset has not appeared, and the gentlemen have gone ashore separately after breakfast. She leans over the side and takes in the Mediterranean light.
