The Public Humiliation — The House of Mirth

Lily's telegram catches Lawrence Selden at the door of his hotel. He turns back to wait for Dorset. The message leaves gaps, but Dorset's temper and Bertha's recklessness make them easy to fill. Selden answers Lily with a short injunction and spends a difficult day trying to keep the explosion from becoming public. Bertha leaves the brunt on her husband's hands, as if absorbed in a grievance of her own. Selden tells Lily to leave the yacht. She answers with contempt for the idea of deserting Bertha.

In the evening he finds the party at a crowded restaurant with the Duchess, Lord and Lady Skiddaw, and the Stepneys. Little Dabham of the Riviera Notes sits close enough to turn the table into copy. The talk is showy and dull. Lily still looks as if she trusts the room. Selden cannot make her go.

When the Duchess dashes for her train, the Stepneys offer their motor to the quay. Mrs. Dorset moves off with George in attendance. Jack Stepney calls Lily to come if she is going back to the yacht. Bertha steps back and says, in a voice meant to carry, that Miss Bart is not going back to the yacht. Mrs. Bry crimsons to the verge of congestion. Mrs. Stepney slips behind her husband. Selden wants to fling Dabham into the street. George stammers that it is a misunderstanding. Bertha says Miss Bart remains here, and they had better not detain Mrs. Stepney any longer.

Lily stays erect and explains that she is joining the Duchess tomorrow and will stay on shore. The women's averted looks tell her no one believes it. She turns to Selden with the pale bravery of her recovered smile and asks him to see her to her cab. In the wet gardens he cannot find a safe word. Smoke and fire keep blocking his pity, and she will not explain. She asks for a quiet hotel, then reminds him that he advised her to leave the yacht, and she is leaving it. He takes her to the Stepneys' hotel and sends his name up, though she whispers that he does not know Gwen. Ten minutes later Jack Stepney comes down on one condition. She leaves tomorrow by the early train, and his wife is asleep and cannot be disturbed.