Book 1: Chapter 15 Summary

When Lily awakes to find herself in Gerty's bed, she is met with a rush of disgust, and concerns that her aunt has discovered her absence. She returns home, and tells her aunt that she was feeling faint on her way home, and went to Gerty's place to recover. Mrs. Peniston tells Lily to go upstairs to rest, and it is under this pretext that Lily retires to her room to calculate the exact amount of her debt to Gus Trenor. She realizes that she must repay him every penny, or face the moral and physical consequences.

Realizing that she owes him over $9000, she appeals to her aunt to lend her the money. Her aunt assumes that they are dressmaker's bills, and offers to pay $1000 to her dressmaker. She tries to make her aunt realize the true nature and urgency of...