It is generally in these dainty, pretty, soulless creatures that the bitterest venom of all is to be found.
Her companion is different.

Marian Bethune is a tall woman, with a face not perhaps strictly handsome, but yet full of a beautiful _diablerie_ that raises it above mere comeliness.

Her hair is red--a rich red--magnificent red hair that coils itself round her shapely head, and adds another lustre to the exquisite purity of her skin.
Her eyes have a good deal of red in them, too, mixed with a warm brown--wonderful eyes that hold you when they catch you, and are difficult to forget.

Some women are born with strange charms; Marian Bethune is one of them.

To go through the world with such charms is a risk, for it must mean ruin or salvation, joy or desolation to many.