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In the hansoirl pay so dearly for her least escape fro without having to screen it behind a structure of artifice? She had yielded to a passing i to Lawrence Selden's rooms, and it was so seldom that she could allow herself the luxury of an i to cost her rather more than she could afford She was vexed to see that, in spite of so ilance, she had blundered tithin five minutes
That stupid story about her dress-h--it would have been so si tea with Selden! The mere statement of the fact would have rendered it innocuous But, after having let herself be surprised in a falsehood, it was doubly stupid to snub the witness of her discomfiture If she had had the presence of mind to let Rosedale drive her to the station, the concession ht have purchased his silence
He had his race's accuracy in the appraisal of values, and to be seen walking down the platform at the crowded afternoon hour in the company of Miss Lily Bart would have been ht himself have phrased it He knew, of course, that there would be a large house-party at Bello taken for one of Mrs Trenor's guests was doubtless included in his calculations Mr Rosedale was still at a stage in his social ascent when it was of i part was that Lily knew all this--kne easy it would have been to silence hiht be to do so afterward Mr Simon Rosedale was aabout every one, whose idea of showing himself to be at home in society was to display an inconvenient familiarity with the habits of those hoht intimate Lily was sure that within twenty-four hours the story of her visiting her dress- Mr Rosedale's acquaintances The worst of it was that she had always snubbed and ignored him
On his first appearance--when her improvident cousin, Jack Stepney, had obtained for hiuessed) a card to one of the vast ih "crushes"--Rosedale, with that mixture of artistic sensibility and business astuteness which characterizes his race, had instantly gravitated toward Miss Bart She understood his uided by as nice calculations Training and experience had taught her to be hospitable to newcoht be useful later on, and there were plenty of available OUBLIETTES to s them if they were not