The Wedding Guests

The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton

Book 1, chap VII-VIII

The main event of these two chapters was the Van Osburgh-Stepney wedding.  The wedding held a lot of meaning for Lily, just another event that made painfully clear the fact that she still lacked a husband.  In observing the wedding events, Lily's thoughts were described in this way: "It was the kind of scene in which Lily had often pictured herself as taking the principal part, and on this occasion the fact that she was once more merely a casual spectator, instead of the mystically veiled figure occupying the centre of attention, strengthened her resolve to assume the latter part before the year was over."

At this point, it has been quite a while since Lily has seen Selden or Mr. Gryce, and she is very determined to re-interest Mr. Gryce in her presence.  Though her financial dealings with Mr. Trenor have been so far fruitful, Lily is well aware that it cannot sustain her forever.  She still needs a husband to support her in the near future.  The wedding serves as a clear reminder to Lily and the reader that Lily is not getting younger and time to find a husband is running out.  Lily even declined to be a bridesmaid because she wants the next time she is up at the altar to be when she is the bride.  In addition, she is afraid that people will talk about her and the fact that she is getting older and still has yet to be married.
 Another thing the rekindles Lily's anxiety about being single is her conversation with Gertrude Farish.  Miss Farish, in Lily's eyes, "typified the mediocre and the ineffectual."  Gertrude lives alone and is not very well-off, two things that frighten Lily.  Here the reader recalls Lily's mention of Gerty at the beginning of the novel, when Lily confides to Selden that she does not want to end up like Gerty Farish.  In her conversation with Gerty, Lily learns some uncomfortable news- Percy Gryce is devoted to Evie Van Osburgh.  Though this news jars Lily's confidence slightly, she believes that her greater possession of skill and beauty will allow her to easily regain Mr. Gryce from Evie.  As of yet, Mr. Gryce is Lily's only prospect for marriage, and he seems to be her only way out of the stressed single life into the financially comfortable married life.
The doubt and anxiety about Lily's desired future climaxes at the end of the eighth chapter when it is suddenly revealed that Evie and Mr. Gryce are engaged.
 Now, to get a little less formal here, I honestly audibly gasped when I read that last sentence.  I felt really bad for Lily, even though it was by her own fault that Mr. Gryce left Bellomont early and they didn't see each other until this wedding.  But still, Lily was pretty much depending on her ability to get Mr. Gryce to marry her to have a secure future.  Now what does she have.  I'm  curious to see whether one of a few things will happen.  Lily might:
A) end up alone
B) break up the engagement and end up marrying Mr. Gryce
C) by good fortune randomly find some other rich bachelor to marry
D) end up with Selden
What do you think?