Question

Camellias drooped from thick bushes, their once-pristine white petals browning in the oppressive summer heat. The heady fragrance of the flowers' decay hung like a veil over the crumbling antebellum mansion. Through shattered windows, faded brocade curtains undulated lazily, beckoning whispers of the home's faded opulence. In the shadowed recesses of the drawing room, young Henley Beauregard sat primly in a tattered hoop skirt, her pale hands folded over the worn damask. Her sunken eyes stared unseeingly at the thick coating of dust on the Chippendale table before her. She had been raised to make a prestigious match, to secure her family's legacy. Instead, she found herself the last raggedy branch on her family's withered tree, soon to be consumed by the relentless Southern earth, her fortunes and delicate beauty devoured without preamble.

Which excerpt contains an example of irony?
Camellias drooped from thick bushes, their once-pristine white petals browning in the oppressive summer heat.
She had been raised to make a prestigious match, to secure her family's legacy. Instead, she found herself the last raggedy branch on her family's withered tree [. . .]
Through shattered windows, faded brocade curtains undulated lazily, beckoning whispers of the home's faded opulence. In the shadowed recesses of the drawing room, young Henley Beauregard sat primly in a tattered hoop skirt [. . .]
[. . .] soon to be consumed by the relentless Southern earth, her fortunes and delicate beauty devoured without preamble.

Answer 1

The second excerpt: "She had been raised to make a prestigious match, to secure her family's legacy. Instead, she found herself the last raggedy branch on her family's withered tree [...]"

Why: it sets up an expectation (she will secure the family's future) and then describes the opposite outcome (she becomes the family's ruined remnant) — a clear example of situational irony.