A New Enemy

In The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, there are many scenes of great emotion or importance.  I was struck by a particular section of chapter 7 while reading. The scene took place while all the character were seated around the table eating lunch.  Bertha Dorset gave some statements with very biting sarcasm directed at Miss Bart.  One of the things she said was "Do you know, Lily, he [Mr Gryce] told me he had never seen a girl play cards for money till he say you doing it the other night?"  This comes right after Mrs. Dorset had told Gryce many things to lower his opinion of Lily.  Dorset did this because she was jealous that Selden had come to see Lily and not her.  I found the extreme sarcasm of her words quite striking.  What was even more important though was Lily's reaction.  Although she wants to marry Gryce, Wharton wrote "no one could hurt her as much as she was hurting herself."  She had become very unhappy that day because she was  reconsidering her values.  The day before she had listened to Selden and decided that she could possibly live without wealth.  Now, she was rethinking those thoughts, and was angry at herself for losing sight of her goal.    Despite this inner anger was stronger than Bertha's insults, this exchange provided a new plot turn.  Bertha Dorset is now an enemy of Lily.