V + 

The observance of Sunday at Bellomont was chiefly marked by the punctual appearance of the smart omnibus destined to convey the household to the little church at the gates. Whether anyone got into the omnibus or not was a matter of secondary importance, since by standing there it not only bore witness to the orthodox intentions of the family, but made Mrs.┬аTrenor feel, when she finally heard it drive away, that she had somehow vicariously made use of it. + 

It was Mrs.┬аTrenorтАЩs theory that her daughters actually did go to church every Sunday; but their French governessтАЩs convictions calling her to the rival fane, and the fatigues of the week keeping their mother in her room till luncheon, there was seldom anyone present to verify the fact. Now and then, in a spasmodic burst of virtueтБатАФwhen the house had been too uproarious over nightтБатАФGus Trenor forced his genial bulk into a tight frock-coat and routed his daughters from their slumbers; but habitually, as Lily explained to Mr.┬аGryce, this parental duty was forgotten till the church bells were ringing across the park, and the omnibus had driven away empty. + 

Lily had hinted to Mr.┬аGryce that this neglect of religious observances was repugnant to her early traditions, and that during her visits to Bellomont she regularly accompanied Muriel and Hilda to church. This tallied with the assurance, also confidentially imparted, that, never having played bridge before, she had been тАЬdragged into itтАЭ on the night of her arrival, and had lost an appalling amount of money in consequence of her ignorance of the game and of the rules of betting. Mr.┬аGryce was undoubtedly enjoying Bellomont. He liked the ease and glitter of the life, and the lustre conferred on him by being a member of this group of rich and conspicuous people. But he thought it a very materialistic society; there were times when he was frightened by the talk of the men and the looks of the ladies, and he was glad to find that Miss Bart, for all her ease and self-possession, was not at home in so ambiguous an atmosphere. For this reason he had been especially pleased to learn that she would, as usual, attend the young Trenors to church on Sunday morning; and as he paced the gravel sweep before the door, his light overcoat on his arm and his prayerbook in one carefully-gloved hand, he reflected agreeably on the strength of character which kept her true to her early training in surroundings so subversive to religious principles. + 

For a long time Mr.┬аGryce and the omnibus had the gravel sweep to themselves; but, far from regretting this deplorable indifference on the part of the other guests, he found himself nourishing the hope that Miss Bart might be unaccompanied. The precious minutes were flying, however; the big chestnuts pawed the ground and flecked their impatient sides with foam; the coachman seemed to be slowly petrifying on the box, and the groom on the doorstep; and still the lady did not come. Suddenly, however, there was a sound of voices and a rustle of skirts in the doorway, and Mr.┬аGryce, restoring his watch to his pocket, turned with a nervous start; but it was only to find himself handing Mrs.┬аWetherall into the carriage. + 

The Wetheralls always went to church. They belonged to the vast group of human automata who go through life without neglecting to perform a single one of the gestures executed by the surrounding puppets. It is true that the Bellomont puppets did not go to church; but others equally important didтБатАФand Mr.┬аand Mrs.┬аWetherallтАЩs circle was so large that God was included in their visiting-list. They appeared, therefore, punctual and resigned, with the air of people bound for a dull тАЬAt Home,тАЭ and after them Hilda and Muriel straggled, yawning and pinning each otherтАЩs veils and ribbons as they came. They had promised Lily to go to church with her, they declared, and Lily was such a dear old duck that they didnтАЩt mind doing it to please her, though they couldnтАЩt fancy what had put the idea in her head, and though for their own part they would much rather have played lawn tennis with Jack and Gwen, if she hadnтАЩt told them she was coming. The Misses Trenor were followed by Lady Cressida Raith, a weather-beaten person in Liberty silk and ethnological trinkets, who, on seeing the omnibus, expressed her surprise that they were not to walk across the park; but at Mrs.┬аWetherallтАЩs horrified protest that the church was a mile away, her ladyship, after a glance at the height of the otherтАЩs heels, acquiesced in the necessity of driving, and poor Mr.┬аGryce found himself rolling off between four ladies for whose spiritual welfare he felt not the least concern. + 

It might have afforded him some consolation could he have known that Miss Bart had really meant to go to church. She had even risen earlier than usual in the execution of her purpose. She had an idea that the sight of her in a grey gown of devotional cut, with her famous lashes drooped above a prayerbook, would put the finishing touch to Mr.┬аGryceтАЩs subjugation, and render inevitable a certain incident which she had resolved should form a part of the walk they were to take together after luncheon. Her intentions in short had never been more definite; but poor Lily, for all the hard glaze of her exterior, was inwardly as malleable as wax. Her faculty for adapting herself, for entering into other peopleтАЩs feelings, if it served her now and then in small contingencies, hampered her in the decisive moments of life. She was like a water-plant in the flux of the tides, and today the whole current of her mood was carrying her toward Lawrence Selden. Why had he come? Was it to see herself or Bertha Dorset? It was the last question which, at that moment, should have engaged her. She might better have contented herself with thinking that he had simply responded to the despairing summons of his hostess, anxious to interpose him between herself and the ill-humour of Mrs.┬аDorset. But Lily had not rested till she learned from Mrs.┬аTrenor that Selden had come of his own accord. + 

тАЬHe didnтАЩt even wire meтБатАФhe just happened to find the trap at the station. Perhaps itтАЩs not over with Bertha after all,тАЭ Mrs.┬аTrenor musingly concluded; and went away to arrange her dinner-cards accordingly. + 

Perhaps it was not, Lily reflected; but it should be soon, unless she had lost her cunning. If Selden had come at Mrs.┬аDorsetтАЩs call, it was at her own that he would stay. So much the previous evening had told her. Mrs.┬аTrenor, true to her simple principle of making her married friends happy, had placed Selden and Mrs.┬аDorset next to each other at dinner; but, in obedience to the time-honoured traditions of the matchmaker, she had separated Lily and Mr.┬аGryce, sending in the former with George Dorset, while Mr.┬аGryce was coupled with Gwen Van Osburgh. + 

George DorsetтАЩs talk did not interfere with the range of his neighbourтАЩs thoughts. He was a mournful dyspeptic, intent on finding out the deleterious ingredients of every dish and diverted from this care only by the sound of his wifeтАЩs voice. On this occasion, however, Mrs.┬аDorset took no part in the general conversation. She sat talking in low murmurs with Selden, and turning a contemptuous and denuded shoulder toward her host, who, far from resenting his exclusion, plunged into the excesses of the menu with the joyous irresponsibility of a free man. To Mr.┬аDorset, however, his wifeтАЩs attitude was a subject of such evident concern that, when he was not scraping the sauce from his fish, or scooping the moist breadcrumbs from the interior of his roll, he sat straining his thin neck for a glimpse of her between the lights. + 

Mrs.┬аTrenor, as it chanced, had placed the husband and wife on opposite sides of the table, and Lily was therefore able to observe Mrs.┬аDorset also, and by carrying her glance a few feet farther, to set up a rapid comparison between Lawrence Selden and Mr.┬аGryce. It was that comparison which was her undoing. Why else had she suddenly grown interested in Selden? She had known him for eight years or more: ever since her return to America he had formed a part of her background. She had always been glad to sit next to him at dinner, had found him more agreeable than most men, and had vaguely wished that he possessed the other qualities needful to fix her attention; but till now she had been too busy with her own affairs to regard him as more than one of the pleasant accessories of life. Miss Bart was a keen reader of her own heart, and she saw that her sudden preoccupation with Selden was due to the fact that his presence shed a new light on her surroundings. Not that he was notably brilliant or exceptional; in his own profession he was surpassed by more than one man who had bored Lily through many a weary dinner. It was rather that he had preserved a certain social detachment, a happy air of viewing the show objectively, of having points of contact outside the great gilt cage in which they were all huddled for the mob to gape at. How alluring the world outside the cage appeared to Lily, as she heard its door clang on her! In reality, as she knew, the door never clanged: it stood always open; but most of the captives were like flies in a bottle, and having once flown in, could never regain their freedom. It was SeldenтАЩs distinction that he had never forgotten the way out. + 

That was the secret of his way of readjusting her vision. Lily, turning her eyes from him, found herself scanning her little world through his retina: it was as though the pink lamps had been shut off and the dusty daylight let in. She looked down the long table, studying its occupants one by one, from Gus Trenor, with his heavy carnivorous head sunk between his shoulders, as he preyed on a jellied plover, to his wife, at the opposite end of the long bank of orchids, suggestive, with her glaring good-looks, of a jewellerтАЩs window lit by electricity. And between the two, what a long stretch of vacuity! How dreary and trivial these people were! Lily reviewed them with a scornful impatience: Carry Fisher, with her shoulders, her eyes, her divorces, her general air of embodying a тАЬspicy paragraphтАЭ; young Silverton, who had meant to live on proofreading and write an epic, and who now lived on his friends and had become critical of truffles; Alice Wetherall, an animated visiting-list, whose most fervid convictions turned on the wording of invitations and the engraving of dinner-cards; Wetherall, with his perpetual nervous nod of acquiescence, his air of agreeing with people before he knew what they were saying; Jack Stepney, with his confident smile and anxious eyes, halfway between the sheriff and an heiress; Gwen Van Osburgh, with all the guileless confidence of a young girl who has always been told that there is no one richer than her father. + 

Lily smiled at her classification of her friends. How different they had seemed to her a few hours ago! Then they had symbolized what she was gaining, now they stood for what she was giving up. That very afternoon they had seemed full of brilliant qualities; now she saw that they were merely dull in a loud way. Under the glitter of their opportunities she saw the poverty of their achievement. It was not that she wanted them to be more disinterested; but she would have liked them to be more picturesque. And she had a shamed recollection of the way in which, a few hours since, she had felt the centripetal force of their standards. She closed her eyes an instant, and the vacuous routine of the life she had chosen stretched before her like a long white road without dip or turning: it was true she was to roll over it in a carriage instead of trudging it on foot, but sometimes the pedestrian enjoys the diversion of a shortcut which is denied to those on wheels. + 

She was roused by a chuckle which Mr.┬аDorset seemed to eject from the depths of his lean throat. + 

тАЬI say, do look at her,тАЭ he exclaimed, turning to Miss Bart with lugubrious merrimentтБатАФтАЬI beg your pardon, but do just look at my wife making a fool of that poor devil over there! One would really suppose she was gone on himтБатАФand itтАЩs all the other way round, I assure you.тАЭ + 

Thus adjured, Lily turned her eyes on the spectacle which was affording Mr.┬аDorset such legitimate mirth. It certainly appeared, as he said, that Mrs.┬аDorset was the more active participant in the scene: her neighbour seemed to receive her advances with a temperate zest which did not distract him from his dinner. The sight restored LilyтАЩs good humour, and knowing the peculiar disguise which Mr.┬аDorsetтАЩs marital fears assumed, she asked gaily: тАЬArenтАЩt you horribly jealous of her?тАЭ + 

Dorset greeted the sally with delight. тАЬOh, abominablyтБатАФyouтАЩve just hit itтБатАФkeeps me awake at night. The doctors tell me thatтАЩs what has knocked my digestion outтБатАФbeing so infernally jealous of her.тБатАФI canтАЩt eat a mouthful of this stuff, you know,тАЭ he added suddenly, pushing back his plate with a clouded countenance; and Lily, unfailingly adaptable, accorded her radiant attention to his prolonged denunciation of other peopleтАЩs cooks, with a supplementary tirade on the toxic qualities of melted butter. + 

It was not often that he found so ready an ear; and, being a man as well as a dyspeptic, it may be that as he poured his grievances into it he was not insensible to its rosy symmetry. At any rate he engaged Lily so long that the sweets were being handed when she caught a phrase on her other side, where Miss Corby, the comic woman of the company, was bantering Jack Stepney on his approaching engagement. Miss CorbyтАЩs role was jocularity: she always entered the conversation with a handspring. + 

тАЬAnd of course youтАЩll have Sim Rosedale as best man!тАЭ Lily heard her fling out as the climax of her prognostications; and Stepney responded, as if struck: тАЬJove, thatтАЩs an idea. What a thumping present IтАЩd get out of him!тАЭ + 

Sim Rosedale! The name, made more odious by its diminutive, obtruded itself on LilyтАЩs thoughts like a leer. It stood for one of the many hated possibilities hovering on the edge of life. If she did not marry Percy Gryce, the day might come when she would have to be civil to such men as Rosedale. If she did not marry him? But she meant to marry himтБатАФshe was sure of him and sure of herself. She drew back with a shiver from the pleasant paths in which her thoughts had been straying, and set her feet once more in the middle of the long white road.тБатАКтБатАж When she went upstairs that night she found that the late post had brought her a fresh batch of bills. Mrs.┬аPeniston, who was a conscientious woman, had forwarded them all to Bellomont. + 

Miss Bart, accordingly, rose the next morning with the most earnest conviction that it was her duty to go to church. She tore herself betimes from the lingering enjoyment of her breakfast-tray, rang to have her grey gown laid out, and despatched her maid to borrow a prayerbook from Mrs.┬аTrenor. + 

But her course was too purely reasonable not to contain the germs of rebellion. No sooner were her preparations made than they roused a smothered sense of resistance. A small spark was enough to kindle LilyтАЩs imagination, and the sight of the grey dress and the borrowed prayerbook flashed a long light down the years. She would have to go to church with Percy Gryce every Sunday. They would have a front pew in the most expensive church in New York, and his name would figure handsomely in the list of parish charities. In a few years, when he grew stouter, he would be made a warden. Once in the winter the rector would come to dine, and her husband would beg her to go over the list and see that no divorcees were included, except those who had showed signs of penitence by being remarried to the very wealthy. There was nothing especially arduous in this round of religious obligations; but it stood for a fraction of that great bulk of boredom which loomed across her path. And who could consent to be bored on such a morning? Lily had slept well, and her bath had filled her with a pleasant glow, which was becomingly reflected in the clear curve of her cheek. No lines were visible this morning, or else the glass was at a happier angle. + 

And the day was the accomplice of her mood: it was a day for impulse and truancy. The light air seemed full of powdered gold; below the dewy bloom of the lawns the woodlands blushed and smouldered, and the hills across the river swam in molten blue. Every drop of blood in LilyтАЩs veins invited her to happiness. + 

The sound of wheels roused her from these musings, and leaning behind her shutters she saw the omnibus take up its freight. She was too late, thenтБатАФbut the fact did not alarm her. A glimpse of Mr.┬аGryceтАЩs crestfallen face even suggested that she had done wisely in absenting herself, since the disappointment he so candidly betrayed would surely whet his appetite for the afternoon walk. That walk she did not mean to miss; one glance at the bills on her writing-table was enough to recall its necessity. But meanwhile she had the morning to herself, and could muse pleasantly on the disposal of its hours. She was familiar enough with the habits of Bellomont to know that she was likely to have a free field till luncheon. She had seen the Wetheralls, the Trenor girls and Lady Cressida packed safely into the omnibus; Judy Trenor was sure to be having her hair shampooed; Carry Fisher had doubtless carried off her host for a drive; Ned Silverton was probably smoking the cigarette of young despair in his bedroom; and Kate Corby was certain to be playing tennis with Jack Stepney and Miss Van Osburgh. Of the ladies, this left only Mrs.┬аDorset unaccounted for, and Mrs.┬аDorset never came down till luncheon: her doctors, she averred, had forbidden her to expose herself to the crude air of the morning. + 

To the remaining members of the party Lily gave no special thought; wherever they were, they were not likely to interfere with her plans. These, for the moment, took the shape of assuming a dress somewhat more rustic and summerlike in style than the garment she had first selected, and rustling downstairs, sunshade in hand, with the disengaged air of a lady in quest of exercise. The great hall was empty but for the knot of dogs by the fire, who, taking in at a glance the outdoor aspect of Miss Bart, were upon her at once with lavish offers of companionship. She put aside the ramming paws which conveyed these offers, and assuring the joyous volunteers that she might presently have a use for their company, sauntered on through the empty drawing-room to the library at the end of the house. The library was almost the only surviving portion of the old manor-house of Bellomont: a long spacious room, revealing the traditions of the mother-country in its classically-cased doors, the Dutch tiles of the chimney, and the elaborate hob-grate with its shining brass urns. A few family portraits of lantern-jawed gentlemen in tie-wigs, and ladies with large headdresses and small bodies, hung between the shelves lined with pleasantly-shabby books: books mostly contemporaneous with the ancestors in question, and to which the subsequent Trenors had made no perceptible additions. The library at Bellomont was in fact never used for reading, though it had a certain popularity as a smoking-room or a quiet retreat for flirtation. It had occurred to Lily, however, that it might on this occasion have been resorted to by the only member of the party in the least likely to put it to its original use. She advanced noiselessly over the dense old rug scattered with easy-chairs, and before she reached the middle of the room she saw that she had not been mistaken. Lawrence Selden was in fact seated at its farther end; but though a book lay on his knee, his attention was not engaged with it, but directed to a lady whose lace-clad figure, as she leaned back in an adjoining chair, detached itself with exaggerated slimness against the dusky leather of the upholstery. + 

Lily paused as she caught sight of the group; for a moment she seemed about to withdraw, but thinking better of this, she announced her approach by a slight shake of her skirts which made the couple raise their heads, Mrs.┬аDorset with a look of frank displeasure, and Selden with his usual quiet smile. The sight of his composure had a disturbing effect on Lily; but to be disturbed was in her case to make a more brilliant effort at self-possession. + 

тАЬDear me, am I late?тАЭ she asked, putting a hand in his as he advanced to greet her. + 

тАЬLate for what?тАЭ enquired Mrs.┬аDorset tartly. тАЬNot for luncheon, certainlyтБатАФbut perhaps you had an earlier engagement?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes, I had,тАЭ said Lily confidingly. + 

тАЬReally? Perhaps I am in the way, then? But Mr.┬аSelden is entirely at your disposal.тАЭ Mrs.┬аDorset was pale with temper, and her antagonist felt a certain pleasure in prolonging her distress. + 

тАЬOh, dear, noтБатАФdo stay,тАЭ she said good-humouredly. тАЬI donтАЩt in the least want to drive you away.тАЭ + 

тАЬYouтАЩre awfully good, dear, but I never interfere with Mr.┬аSeldenтАЩs engagements.тАЭ + 

The remark was uttered with a little air of proprietorship not lost on its object, who concealed a faint blush of annoyance by stooping to pick up the book he had dropped at LilyтАЩs approach. The latterтАЩs eyes widened charmingly and she broke into a light laugh. + 

тАЬBut I have no engagement with Mr.┬аSelden! My engagement was to go to church; and IтАЩm afraid the omnibus has started without me. Has it started, do you know?тАЭ + 

She turned to Selden, who replied that he had heard it drive away some time since. + 

тАЬAh, then I shall have to walk; I promised Hilda and Muriel to go to church with them. ItтАЩs too late to walk there, you say? Well, I shall have the credit of trying, at any rateтБатАФand the advantage of escaping part of the service. IтАЩm not so sorry for myself, after all!тАЭ + 

And with a bright nod to the couple on whom she had intruded, Miss Bart strolled through the glass doors and carried her rustling grace down the long perspective of the garden walk. + 

She was taking her way churchward, but at no very quick pace; a fact not lost on one of her observers, who stood in the doorway looking after her with an air of puzzled amusement. The truth is that she was conscious of a somewhat keen shock of disappointment. All her plans for the day had been built on the assumption that it was to see her that Selden had come to Bellomont. She had expected, when she came downstairs, to find him on the watch for her; and she had found him, instead, in a situation which might well denote that he had been on the watch for another lady. Was it possible, after all, that he had come for Bertha Dorset? The latter had acted on the assumption to the extent of appearing at an hour when she never showed herself to ordinary mortals, and Lily, for the moment, saw no way of putting her in the wrong. It did not occur to her that Selden might have been actuated merely by the desire to spend a Sunday out of town: women never learn to dispense with the sentimental motive in their judgments of men. But Lily was not easily disconcerted; competition put her on her mettle, and she reflected that SeldenтАЩs coming, if it did not declare him to be still in Mrs.┬аDorsetтАЩs toils, showed him to be so completely free from them that he was not afraid of her proximity. + 

These thoughts so engaged her that she fell into a gait hardly likely to carry her to church before the sermon, and at length, having passed from the gardens to the wood-path beyond, so far forgot her intention as to sink into a rustic seat at a bend of the walk. The spot was charming, and Lily was not insensible to the charm, or to the fact that her presence enhanced it; but she was not accustomed to taste the joys of solitude except in company, and the combination of a handsome girl and a romantic scene struck her as too good to be wasted. No one, however, appeared to profit by the opportunity; and after a half hour of fruitless waiting she rose and wandered on. She felt a stealing sense of fatigue as she walked; the sparkle had died out of her, and the taste of life was stale on her lips. She hardly knew what she had been seeking, or why the failure to find it had so blotted the light from her sky: she was only aware of a vague sense of failure, of an inner isolation deeper than the loneliness about her. + 

Her footsteps flagged, and she stood gazing listlessly ahead, digging the ferny edge of the path with the tip of her sunshade. As she did so a step sounded behind her, and she saw Selden at her side. + 

тАЬHow fast you walk!тАЭ he remarked. тАЬI thought I should never catch up with you.тАЭ + 

She answered gaily: тАЬYou must be quite breathless! IтАЩve been sitting under that tree for an hour.тАЭ + 

тАЬWaiting for me, I hope?тАЭ he rejoined; and she said with a vague laugh: + 

тАЬWellтБатАФwaiting to see if you would come.тАЭ + 

тАЬI seize the distinction, but I donтАЩt mind it, since doing the one involved doing the other. But werenтАЩt you sure that I should come?тАЭ + 

тАЬIf I waited long enoughтБатАФbut you see I had only a limited time to give to the experiment.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhy limited? Limited by luncheon?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo; by my other engagement.тАЭ + 

тАЬYour engagement to go to church with Muriel and Hilda?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo; but to come home from church with another person.тАЭ + 

тАЬAh, I see; I might have known you were fully provided with alternatives. And is the other person coming home this way?тАЭ + 

Lily laughed again. тАЬThatтАЩs just what I donтАЩt know; and to find out, it is my business to get to church before the service is over.тАЭ + 

тАЬExactly; and it is my business to prevent your doing so; in which case the other person, piqued by your absence, will form the desperate resolve of driving back in the omnibus.тАЭ + 

Lily received this with fresh appreciation; his nonsense was like the bubbling of her inner mood. тАЬIs that what you would do in such an emergency?тАЭ she enquired. + 

Selden looked at her with solemnity. тАЬI am here to prove to you,тАЭ he cried, тАЬwhat I am capable of doing in an emergency!тАЭ + 

тАЬWalking a mile in an hourтБатАФyou must own that the omnibus would be quicker!тАЭ + 

тАЬAhтБатАФbut will he find you in the end? ThatтАЩs the only test of success.тАЭ + 

They looked at each other with the same luxury of enjoyment that they had felt in exchanging absurdities over his tea-table; but suddenly LilyтАЩs face changed, and she said: тАЬWell, if it is, he has succeeded.тАЭ + 

Selden, following her glance, perceived a party of people advancing toward them from the farther bend of the path. Lady Cressida had evidently insisted on walking home, and the rest of the churchgoers had thought it their duty to accompany her. LilyтАЩs companion looked rapidly from one to the other of the two men of the party; Wetherall walking respectfully at Lady CressidaтАЩs side with his little sidelong look of nervous attention, and Percy Gryce bringing up the rear with Mrs.┬аWetherall and the Trenors. + 

тАЬAhтБатАФnow I see why you were getting up your Americana!тАЭ Selden exclaimed with a note of the freest admiration but the blush with which the sally was received checked whatever amplifications he had meant to give it. + 

That Lily Bart should object to being bantered about her suitors, or even about her means of attracting them, was so new to Selden that he had a momentary flash of surprise, which lit up a number of possibilities; but she rose gallantly to the defence of her confusion, by saying, as its object approached: тАЬThat was why I was waiting for youтБатАФto thank you for having given me so many points!тАЭ + 

тАЬAh, you can hardly do justice to the subject in such a short time,тАЭ said Selden, as the Trenor girls caught sight of Miss Bart; and while she signalled a response to their boisterous greeting, he added quickly: тАЬWonтАЩt you devote your afternoon to it? You know I must be off tomorrow morning. WeтАЩll take a walk, and you can thank me at your leisure.тАЭ + 