The house party at Bellomont is breaking up, and Lily's failure with Percy Gryce is now public knowledge. Mrs. Trenor confronts her with wounded outrage. Everyone helped the match along, Lily declared her intentions, and then she threw the chance away. Judy reveals what Lily already suspects: Bertha Dorset spread stories about Lily's gambling debts and her afternoon with Selden, and Bertha felt entitled to retaliate because Lily had distracted Gryce first.
Judy speaks as if the failure were a personal insult to hospitality itself. Lily must stand erect and absorb the lecture while knowing every charge contains truth. She chose an afternoon of freedom with Selden over the dull safety Gryce represented.
At lunch the remaining guests joke about Percy's dull respectability, but Lily hears only the fortune she lost. Gryce's steady money could have ended her panic. His name is spoken as a joke while Lily counts the rooms, dresses, and trips that money would have bought. Instead she faces shrinking invitations, unpaid bills, and the return to her aunt's dull house. She tells herself she will live cheaply and recover, but she has no real plan.
Driving to meet Gus Trenor at the station, Lily shifts into survival mode. Trenor complains about money pressures of his own, then boasts about profits from a tip given by Simon Rosedale. Lily, proud and desperate, hints that she wishes she had capital to invest. Trenor offers to put money in the market for her. The conversation grows familiar, edged with flattery and complaint.
By the ride home he rests his hand on hers, and Lily accepts the touch as part of the price. She tells herself she is only managing a vain man, not surrendering. The renewed sense of power in the gesture frightens her less than the empty purse waiting at the end of the month.
The chapter shows how gossip, pride, and financial fear push Lily into a bargain she tells herself she can control. She is trading dignity for rescue before she admits the full cost. By the time the carriage reaches Bellomont again, Trenor believes he has bought a stake in her future.
