The House of Mirth: Sweet Escape

In the beginning of Book 2 of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, Miss Lily Bart has left most of her problems back in New York, as she escapes on the Dorset's yacht to Europe, "She had been plunged into new scenes, and had found in them a renewal of old hopes and ambitions" (Wharton 209).  Lily is pleased by how much everyone in Europe seems to like her, especially the Duchess who very much likes her (a lot more than Mrs. Dorset, which will actually prove badly for Lily).  It is odd how many of the people were all in New York last chapter and all came to Europe in such a short amount of time. I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or if they socialites of New York are like the Roncalli families who yearly congregate in Fort Myers during spring break.  It's like there's an unspoken contract between Roncalli and its students that they must go to Fort Myers for spring break if they wish to attend the school (not really, that was a slight over exaggeration, but oh well).  Anyways, the Dorsets and their guests Lily and Ned Silverton; the Stepneys, the Brys and their guest Carry Fisher are all in Europe.  It turns out that Selden is here too! I feel bad for him having to see Lily again after he obviously went to great lengths to get away from her (all the way to Europe? That seems a little overkill, Lawrence).  The poor guy has good reason though.  He thought he was in love with Lilly, which was probably difficult enough for himself to deal with considering the fact that the thousands of dollars he doesn't have are the key to her heart.  Now she shows up on his vacation while he is still trying to grasp that he witnesses someone he thought very highly of leaving a married man's house very late in the night.  I would hardly be able to stand the sight of Lily either if I were him.  Not to mention, Lily's role on board the Dorset's yacht is to distract the Mr. so that Mrs. Dorset can go about her very sketchy pursuit of an affair with Ned Silverton.  I really want to slap some sense into Lily. It was a good idea to leave New York when she did, I wold have done the same thing in order to clear my head and think things over regarding Gus Trenor and the marriage proposal to Simon Rosedale.  Helping a woman cheat on her husband is defiantly not going to earn any good karma.  Oh yes, and then Lily is spotted alone with Mr. Dorset late at night because Mrs. Dorset and Silverton are both AWOL (however, anyone can probably guess the gist of what is going on, including Mr. Dorset). Mr. and Mrs. Dorset no join the pity party: Mr. Dorset knows of his wife's actions and plans to divorce her, and Mrs. Dorset earns mine and Lily's pity because without her husband, her lavish lifestyle will also suffer.  Despite her flirtatiousness, I began to like Mrs. Dorset a lot more than in the beginning of the novel when she personally began to create the mess that is now Lily's life.  In Lily's mind she thinks that since then she has been very kind to her, like taking her on this trip.  It is so obvious though that the horrible person that is Bertha Dorset is only looks for personal gain.  To use the "generous" vacation example once again: Bertha brought Lily to distract her husband without any other reason necessary.  She then places herself right back to where she had been in chapter one with her blaming Lily for being alone with her husband late the previous night.  Lily and I both are astonished... what?! Are you seriously kidding me... I'm sorry, but this is the most mad I have been at a character in the book so far.  What a horrible woman to blame Lily for such a thing while she was in fact the source of the problem.  Hopefully this doesn't end up further harming Lily and her reputation.