Susie had meant to pass the later spring on the Riviera, but when she heard that the Haddos were there, she hesitated.  She did not want to run the risk of seeing them, and yet she had a keen desire to find out exactly how things were going.  Curiosity and distaste struggled in her mind, but curiosity won; and she persuaded her friend to go to Monte Carlo instead of to Beaulieu.  At first Susie did not see the Haddos; but rumour was already much occupied with them, and she had only to keep her ears open.  In that strange place, where all that is extravagant and evil, all that is morbid, insane, and fantastic, is gathered together, the Haddos were in fit company.  They were notorious for their assiduity at the tables and for their luck, for the dinners and suppers they gave at places frequented by the very opulent, and for their eccentric appearance.  It was a complex picture that Susie put together from the scraps of information she collected.  After two or three days she saw them at the tables, but they were so absorbed in their game that she felt quite safe from discovery.  Margaret was playing, but Haddo stood behind her and directed her movements.  Their faces were extraordinarily intent.  Susie fixed her attention on Margaret, for in what she had heard of her she had been quite unable to recognize the girl who had been her friend.  And what struck her most now was that there was in Margaret’s expression a singular likeness to Haddo’s.  Notwithstanding her exquisite beauty, she had a curiously vicious look, which suggested that somehow she saw literally with Oliver’s eyes.  They had won great sums that evening, and many persons watched them.  It appeared that they played always in this fashion, Margaret putting on the stakes and Haddo telling her what to do and when to stop.  Susie heard two Frenchmen talking of them.  She listened with all her ears.  She flushed as she heard one of them make an observation about Margaret which was more than coarse.  The other laughed.

‘It is incredible,’ he said.

’I assure you it’s true.  They have been married six months, and she is still only his wife in name.  The superstitious through all the ages have believed in the power of virginity, and the Church has made use of the idea for its own ends.  The man uses her simply as a mascot.’

The men laughed, and their conversation proceeded so grossly that Susie’s cheeks burned.  But what she had heard made her look at Margaret more closely still.  She was radiant.  Susie could not deny that something had come to her that gave a new, enigmatic savour to her beauty.  She was dressed more gorgeously than Susie’s fastidious taste would have permitted; and her diamonds, splendid in themselves, were too magnificent for the occasion.  At last, sweeping up the money, Haddo touched her on the shoulder, and she rose.  Behind her was standing a painted woman of notorious disreputability.  Susie was astonished to see Margaret smile and nod as she passed her.