The House Book 2: 9 and 10

A job! Lily actually has a meager job as a secretary!  And of course, the unrevealed crush makes a visit at some point.  Lily actually admits that the bitterness that she has been suffering these past few months have been in part due to not seeing Selden at all. Seriously, why cant they just get married and call it a day? I want to focus on one part of their initial meeting that really struck me as interesting but not surprising.  "She was very near hating him now; yet the sound of his voice, the way the light fell on his thin dark hair..."(Wharton, 225-226). This part in Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth kind of alludes to me the underlying sadness of this entire novel.  She genuinely likes the guy a lot, but because of her being the way she is. She sees it as impossible for them to be together.  Its her own undoing that is causing her such despair, even though as Wharton states, she does not know shes in.  Its her underlying characteristics that prevent even the consideration of Lily seeing them together and that's what truly stinks! I feel like if she would just let go a little, she would be quite a bit better off.