They lived in a whirl of gaiety. They knew few English
except those whose reputations were damaged, but seemed to prefer the
society of those foreigners whose wealth and eccentricities made them the
cynosure of that little world. Afterwards, she often saw them, in company
of Russian Grand-Dukes and their mistresses, of South American women with
prodigious diamonds, of noble gamblers and great ladies of doubtful fame,
of strange men overdressed and scented. Rumour was increasingly busy with
them. Margaret moved among all those queer people with a cold
mysteriousness that excited the curiosity of the sated idlers. The
suggestion which Susie overheard was repeated more circumstantially. But
to this was joined presently the report of orgies that were enacted in
the darkened sitting-room of the hotel, when all that was noble and
vicious in Monte Carlo was present. Oliver's eccentric imagination
invented whimsical festivities. He had a passion for disguise, and he
gave a fancy-dress party of which fabulous stories were told. He sought
to revive the mystical ceremonies of old religions, and it was reported
that horrible rites had been performed in the garden of the villa, under
the shining moon, in imitation of those he had seen in Eastern places.
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