later, Sophie is murdered in Toulon, and her death reunites Larry and Maugham during the police investigation. Maugham and Larry visit Elliott on his deathbed in Nice. Maugham takes on the delicate task of asking Elliott if he is ready for the last rites. Elliott is in tears because he has not received an invitation for an important masked ball hosted by Princess Edna Novemali, princess-by-marriage, an American from Milwaukee whom Elliott helped when she first entered European society and who now treats him with contempt. Isabel and Gray arrive just as Larry leaves the house on a mission of mercy. Elliott tells Gray that he will now have enough money to pay off his father's debts and rebuild the business. Larry persuades Miss Keith, the Princess's social secretary, to allow him to take a blank invitation to counterfeit one for Elliott and give him peace of mind. Elliott is hugely gratified when the Bishop himself comes to perform the last rites. Then an urgent message arrives—the invitation. Elliott's last act is to dictate a proper reply. He regrets he cannot attend “owing to a previous engagement with his Blessed Lord,” and adds, “The old witch.” Immediately after Elliott's death, Isabel learns that Larry is leaving that night. He plans to work his way back to America aboard a tramp steamer. He tells her he may end up buying a taxi. She has already told Maugham that she plans on seeing as much of Larry as possible when she and Gray return to the States. Now she tells Larry that Gray needs him to help with the business, and as moral support. She reveals that Gray was suicidal at one point. Larry reassures her: Gray has got a second chance, as he himself had. He talks to her about his quest, but Isabel can only pour out her love and her regret that she did not marry him and stop him before he began it. She throws her arms around him and tells him she loves him and, she says, she knows he feels the same. She begs him to come home and be with her, then pulls back when he does not respond. Larry calmly says, “Tell me about Sophie,” and under his questioning Isabel first lies but then admits to tempting Sophie deliberately. She is full of self-righteous anger and justification, claiming that she did it to save