After an evening of playing bridge at the Trenors', Lily retires to her room. She stops on the stairs to take in the opulent Trenor house, and notices Bertha engaging Gryce in conversation. She envies the married Bertha for her ability to talk to men and discard them with no regard. Because Lily and Gryce are both marriageable, Lily knows she cannot treat him in the same fashion.
When she enters her room, Lily compares her lot in life to that of Gerty Farish. She does not believe that she has been equipped to cope with the inconveniences of Gerty's life, which she believes includes garish wallpaper and the "squalid compromises of poverty." Lily feels that she requires a luxury that is her own, a recent change in attitude from the previous comfort she felt in relying on the hospitality of others. She has come to the realization that the hospitality of others has come at a personal cost, and that she has been required to "pay her way" by participating in card games that she cannot afford.
Wharton reveals that Lily has developed a weakness for bridge, a card game for which she has neither talent nor luck. Although she has won substantial amounts in the past, the monies she won were never banked against future losses, but spent imprudently on jewelry and fine clothing. On this particular evening, Lily has lost all but twenty dollars that she has brought with her, in contrast to Judy and Bertha, who both have won large amounts of money.
Lily dresses for bed without notifying her maid that she is doing so, a rudeness she rationalizes as fitting due to the fact that she has been "long enough in bondage to other people's pleasure to be considerate of those who depended on hers." Lily contemplates that she and her maid are in the same circumstances with the exception of one major difference: The maid is paid on a regular basis.
