Editing Edith Wharton (section)

=== The "debutante" years ===
Between 1880 and 1890, Wharton put her writing aside to participate in the social rituals of the New York upper classes. She keenly observed the social changes happening around her, which she later used in her writing.{{sfn|Lee|2008|p=47}} Wharton officially came out as a [[debutante]] to society in 1879.{{sfn|Lee|2008|p=58}} She was allowed to bare her shoulders and wear her hair up for the first time at a December dance, which was given by a Society matron, Anna Morton.{{sfn|Lee|2008|p=58}} Wharton began a courtship with Henry Leyden Stevens, the son of Paran Stevens, a wealthy hotelier and real estate investor from rural New Hampshire. His sister, Minnie, married [[Arthur Paget (British Army officer)|Arthur Paget]].{{sfn|Lee|2008|p=60}} The Jones family did not approve of Stevens.{{sfn|Lee|2008|p=60}}

In the middle of her debutante season, the Jones family returned to Europe in 1881 for her father's health.{{sfn|Lee|2008|p=61}} Still, her father, George Frederic Jones, died of a stroke in Cannes in 1882.{{sfn|Lee|2008|p=35}} Stevens was with the Jones family in Europe during this time.{{sfn|Lee|2008|p=61}} After returning to the United States with her mother, Wharton continued her courtship with Stevens, announcing their engagement in August 1882.{{sfn|Lee|2008|p=61}} The month the two were to marry, the engagement ended.{{sfn|Lewis|1975|pp=44–47}}

Wharton's mother, Lucretia Stevens Rhinelander Jones, moved back to Paris in 1883, and she lived there until her death in 1901.{{sfn|Lee|2008|pp=7–8}}