Part 3, Chapter 4 Summary

However many love affairs Edward Ashburnham finds the time to conduct, he is primarily a man of business. He is a professional soldier with a large estate to manage. He has men that report to him in the military, and he has tenants and rents property at home. However, in the witness box, while defending himself during the Kilsyte case, he realizes that it is a pleasant thing to feel a soft woman's body pressed against his own. Edward starts to daydream about romantic scenarios. When Leonora takes Edward to Monte Carlo so he can relax, he spends one night with the courtesan, La Dolciquita, and becomes obsessed with her. She refuses to see him again unless he buys her an expensive tiara. Edward spends the next two weeks drinking and gambling away his fortune. Leonora finds out about La Dolciquita...