Key Characters in House of Mirth

There was nothing new about Lily Bart.

Her simplest acts always seemed the result of far-reaching intentions.

<p>'How nice of you to come to my rescue'</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He had always made use of the argument from design.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She must have cost a great deal to make.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Fantastically varied in obedience to the American craving for novelty.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He could never be a factor in her calculations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He had a littered desk which shows how it's acceptable for men to be messy.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She was the victim of the civilization which had produced her.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>They use me or abuse me; but they don't care a straw what happens to me.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>I am horribly poor- and very expensive.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A woman is asked out as much for her clothes as herself.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A small glossy-looking man with smart London clothes fitting him like upholstery.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The concession might have purchased his silence.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He had his race's accuracy in the appraisal of values.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He was like a merchant whose warehouses were crammed with an unmarketable commodity.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An appalling house, all brown stone without and black walnut within.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>When a girl has no mother to palpitate for her she must needs be on the alert for herself.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He might ultimately do her the honour of boring her for life.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Her whole being dilated in the atmosphere of luxury.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Favours to Judy</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A neutral tinted father figure filled an intermediate space between the butler and the man who came to wind the clocks.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>There was something heroic in living as though one were much richer than one's bank-book denoted.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She knew very little of the value of money.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He had become extinct when he ceased to fulfil his purpose.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It was the last asset in their fortunes, the nucleus around which their life was to be rebuilt.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It would have been impossible for Mrs. Peniston to be heroic on a desert island.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Dragging herself up again and again above its flood.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>There was nothing new to Lily in these tokens of a studied luxury; but she never lost her sensitiveness to their charm.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Mere display left her with a sense of superior distinction.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Everyone knows you're a thousand times handsomer and cleverer than Bertha; but then you're not nasty.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>I'll lock up my cigarettes and wear that last year's dress.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He said she was as reliable as mutton.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>(Gryce) thought it a very materialistic society.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Her intention in short had never been more definite; but poor Lily, for all the hard glaze of her exterior, was inwardly as malleable as wax.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The great gilt cage.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>If she did not marry Percy Gryce, the day might come when she would have to be civil to such men as Rosedale.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>His presence always had the effect of cheapening her aspirations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The glow of the stones warmed Lily's veins like wine.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A harmonious setting to her own jewel-like rareness.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Why should Percy Gryce's millions be joined to another great fortune?</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>This moral repulsion found a physical outlet in a quickened distaste for her surroundings.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The house... was as dreary as a tomb.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>There were moments when she longed blindly for anything different, anything strange, remote and untried.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The code of Lily's world decreed that a woman's husband should be the only judge of her conduct.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Her strongest sense was one of personal contamination.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He was aware only of the feeling that Selden would wish the letters rescued.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Her room... seemed as dreary as a prison.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Every tint and line should combine to enhance her beauty and give distinction to her leisure.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>She had never before thought of doing good with the wealth she had so often dreamed of possessing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Mrs. Bry had already sacrificed one husband.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Mrs. Bry's admiration was a mirror in which Lily's self-complacency recovered its lost outline.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Her very manner of holding herself aloof that appealed to his collector's compassion for the rare and unattainable.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>He left Lily to a passion of disgust and fear.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>It is capable of measuring distance and drawing conclusions with all the accuracy needful to its welfare.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Always inspirited by the prospect of showing her beauty in public.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>You don't seem to remember my existence nowadays unless you want to get a tip out of me.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Significant aroma, dark flush, glistening dampness.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Lily felt that her thirst for retaliation had died out.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The peculiar charm of her feeling for Selden was that she understood it.</p> Signup and view all the answers