to help him using an Indian form of hypnotic suggestion. Sophie has also drifted to the French capital, where her friends find her reduced to alcohol, opium, and promiscuity--empty and dangerous liaisons that seem to help her to bury her pain. Larry first sets out to save her and then decides to marry her, a plan which displeases Isabel, who is still in love with him.

Isabel tempts Sophie back into alcoholism with a bottle of zubrovka and she disappears from Paris. Maugham deduces this after seeing