When Lily awakes the next morning, she learns that Gerty has already called Mrs. Peniston to explain where Lily is. Thanking her friend, Lily returns home, pacifies her aunt with a story about having stayed at Gerty’s due to illness, and goes to her room. There she tallies up the money she received from Mr. Trenor and realizes that it amounts to nine thousand dollars. She understands now that this money was not in any way her own, and she knows that she has to pay it back. It occurs to her “that a woman’s dignity may cost more to keep up than her carriage.”

After lunch, Lily goes to her aunt and admits that she is in debt. Her aunt scolds her for overspending and asks to see the dressmaker’s bill. Always eager to remove herself from an emotional situation, Mrs. Peniston announces that she will pay up to the absurd amount of a thousand dollars. This does not help Lily at all since the money will go straight to the dressmaker and not to Mr. Trenor. Hesitantly, she says that she owes “a great deal more.” This shocks and angers her aunt, who declares that Lily will have to stay home for a few months and save her own money to pay any additional debts.

Lily’s income is not nearly great enough to cover the nine thousand dollars she owes to Mr. Trenor. She really needs her aunt to give her money directly. Stammering somewhat, she admits that she has debts from gambling at bridge. In Mrs. Peniston’s mind, this is utterly unacceptable behavior for a young woman. She adamantly refuses to pay any debts Lily has accrued from gambling.

Defeated, Lily returns to her room. She never considered that her aunt would fail to rescue her; now her only recourse is Lawrence Selden. She is sure that he will advise her, maybe even help her himself somehow. Eagerly she awaits his visit at four o’clock. When he does not come, she tells herself that her handwriting is bad and that he will come at five.

At five, Mr. Rosedale shows up at the door. He makes small talk with Lily about the Brys' party the other night and compliments her part of the performance. Then he confesses that his social ambitions are different from those of the Brys: "I’d want something that would look more easy and natural, more as if I took it in my stride. And it takes just two things to do that, Miss Bart: money, and the right woman." With that, Lily finds herself in the midst of a marriage proposal.

There is no talk of love, although Rosedale does say that he is “crazy about” Lily. Knowing she has no such feelings for him, he concentrates on the financial benefits she would receive if she married him: "I know there’s one thing vulgar about money, and that’s the thinking about it; and my wife would never have to demean herself in that way." Mr. Rosedale is offering Lily everything she has always said she wanted, but as Lily listens to him speak, she cannot help comparing him to Selden. Rosedale is far inferior as a human being—just as Mr. Gryce was. She says no.

After she ushers Rosedale out, Lily spends several hours in agony waiting for Lawrence Selden’s note explaining why he missed their meeting. She worries until the following morning when she reads in the newspaper that Selden has taken a sudden trip to Havana. She understands that he went away because of her. He has not spoken to her, but he has decided not to pursue her.

If Selden is not going to rescue Lily, then Mr. Rosedale is the only hope she has left. She sits down to write him a letter, but she cannot make herself put the words down on paper. As she struggles with herself, a note arrives for her. It is from the Dorsets, inviting her to come along with them on a cruise to Europe.