She simply left the brunt of the situation on her husband's hands, as if too absorbed in a grievance of her own to suspect that she might be the object of one herself.

To Lily this attitude was the most ominous, because the most perplexing, element in the situation.

As she tried to fan the weak flicker of talk, to build up, again and again, the crumbling structure of "appearances," her own attention was perpetually distracted by the question: "What on earth can she be driving at ?" There was something positively exasperating in Bertha's attitude of isolated defiance.

If only she would have given her friend a hint they might still have worked together successfully; but how could Lily be of use, while she was thus obstinately shut out from participation?
To be of use was what she honestly wanted; and not for her own sake but for the Dorsets'.

She had not thought of her own situation at all: she was simply engrossed in trying to put a little order in theirs.