Book 1: Chapter 5 Summary

Lily awakens on Sunday morning with every intention of accompanying Mr. Gryce to church. She knows that the sight of the "pious Lily" in a conservative gray dress with head bent in prayer, coupled with an opportune walk home together, will be enough to induce Mr. Gryce to propose to her.

Despite this certainty, Lily spends spent the previous evening contemplating whether Lawrence Selden had come with the intention of seeing her or Bertha Dorset. His appearance causes her to reconsider all that she had felt that afternoon. The same friends, who had hours earlier been sophisticated, fun, and elegant, are suddenly made dreary and trivial when she looks at them through the critical eye of Lawrence Selden.

However, the mention of Simon Rosedale, and the fleeting thought that if she didn't marry soon, the day might come when she'd have...