Yellow Roses

Nobody comes to the party. The invitations go out for Ellen Olenska's welcome dinner and all of New York regrets it can't attend, and Roxane Gay reads the snub for what it is: a verdict delivered without a single rude word. Chapters six through nine then stage the counterverdict, an old family's rescue, a countess who owns the room because she has already paid freedom's full price, and a bachelor sending flowers to two different women. To May, lilies of the valley, dutiful and white. To Ellen, yellow roses, unsigned. Gay's reading of that florist's box says the love story is no longer deniable, and it shows.