MC Roman Fever by Edith Wharton 1862 Discussion

A
question I would like to pose to my peers revolves around the concept of a
lesser evil. Many believe that being wrong cannot get valued, but in the
society, we are in today, we have always been prompted to choose the lesser
evil from our decision of leaders to friends we keep close. In a nutshell, who
made the gravest mistake? Is it the dead husband who, despite being engaged,
slept with the best friend of his fiancé and never bothered to follow up on the
child that was born of their mistake? He must have done his math right, no
doubt. Better yet, does the greatest flaw lie in the hands of the woman who
conceived a plan to humiliate her best friend by impersonating her future
husband? Or, is it the mother who lives a lie and lets her husband bring up the
child of another man? Was it her fault that she perhaps loved the fiancé of her
best friend and went with the flow of things?