A Ghost in Monte Carlo

With an effort he took his eyes from Mistral to look at the woman at his side. He had never realised before, he thought, how old Violet sometimes looked. He always thought of her as being so young – younger than himself – but now at this moment he could see that middle age was not far away.

It was also, she was to learn later, the colour and softness of budding mimosa. It was hair which is only found on Anglo Saxons, the fair flaxen hair which goes with the blue eyes and pale complexions of the English.

now he was not certain how near he had been to defeat or annihilation. He was free, that was all that mattered

But now he was safe! Safe and free to return to Cheveron

she asked him to behave honourably towards her, he must do so, whatever the cost to himself

that if she appealed to him to save her good name

had brought him that he realised how terribly afraid he had been of telling her that their love affair was at an end

It was only now in the utter relief that Violet’s decision

that she was weeping not only for Robert but her lost youth

but when they did, they shook her from head to foot, a tempest of utter misery such as she had never experienced in the whole of her life before