Paris
The image of Paris is provided in the first lines of the story. The narrator is astonished by both “the splendour and shabbiness of Parisian life” and wonders over the vermouth “at the strange panorama of pride and poverty that was passing before me”. Paris is known for its luxury life, but there is another side which is not so prominent in some cases. Paris is the city of contrasts.
Mysterious Lady
The imagery of a beautiful lady is given in the story on an example of Lady Alroy: “tall and slight, and strangely picturesque with her large vague eyes and loosened hair. She looked like a clairvoyante, and was wrapped in rich furs”; but it is not the appearance description that is important, her “beauty moulded out of many mysteries—the beauty, in fact, which is psychological, not plastic—and the faint smile that just played across the lips was far too subtle to be really sweet”. Lady Alroy did everything possible to attain and keep mystery around her own personality.
