The House of Mirth
Eventually, Lily Bart receives a ten-thousand-dollar inheritance from her Aunt Peniston, which she arranges to use to repay Gus Trenor. Distraught by her misfortunes, Lily has by this time begun regularly using a sleeping draught of chloral hydrate to escape the pain of poverty and social ostracism. Once she has repaid all her debts, Lily takes an overdose of the sleeping draught and dies; perhaps it is suicide, perhaps an accident. That very morning, Lawrence Selden arrives to her quarters, to finally propose marriage, but finds Lily Bart dead. Among her belongings are receipts for her payments toward the debt she owed to Gus Trenor, proving that her financial dealings with Trenor were honorable and not evidence of an improper relationship. His realization allows him to feel sympathy and closeness for her, and he is clearly distraught by her death.
The Serena Also Rises
Lily has hired an art dealer to redecorate the apartment and asks her to buy a nude photo that Mapplethorpe once did of her. The art dealer finds it has already been bought by Bart. She and Lily assume it is a present but when Bart returns home he reveals he only bought it so no-one could see it and use it against them. Lily is shocked he got a private investigator to do a file on her past and claims she has nothing she wants to hide from her children...until Bart shows her one of the things he dug up.