Susie felt it impossible any longer to stay in the deserted studio, and
accepted a friend's invitation to spend the winter in Italy. The good Dr
Porhoet remained in Paris with his books and his occult studies.

Susie travelled slowly through Tuscany and Umbria. Margaret had not
written to her, and Susie, on leaving Paris, had sent her friend's
belongings to an address from which she knew they would eventually be
forwarded. She could not bring herself to write. In answer to a note
announcing her change of plans, Arthur wrote briefly that he had much
work to do and was delivering a new course of lectures at St. Luke's; he
had lately been appointed visiting surgeon to another hospital, and his
private practice was increasing. He did not mention Margaret. His letter
was abrupt, formal, and constrained. Susie, reading it for the tenth
time, could make little of it. She saw that he wrote only from civility,
without interest; and there was nothing to indicate his state of mind.
Susie and her companion had made up their minds to pass some weeks in
Rome; and here, to her astonishment, Susie had news of Haddo and his
wife. It appeared that they had spent some time there, and the little
English circle was talking still of their eccentricities. They travelled
in some state, with a courier and a suite of servants; they had taken a
carriage and were in the habit of driving every afternoon on the Pincio.
Haddo had excited attention by the extravagance of his costume, and
Margaret by her beauty; she was to be seen in her box at the opera every
night, and her diamonds were the envy of all beholders. Though people had
laughed a good deal at Haddo's pretentiousness, and been exasperated by
his arrogance, they could not fail to be impressed by his obvious wealth.
But finally the pair had disappeared suddenly without saying a word to
anybody. A good many bills remained unpaid, but these, Susie learnt, had
been settled later. It was reported that they were now in Monte Carlo.

'Did they seem happy?' Susie asked the gossiping friend who gave her this
scanty information.

'I think so. After all, Mrs Haddo has almost everything that a woman
can want, riches, beauty, nice clothes, jewels. She would be very
unreasonable not to be happy.'

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 o