Marseille is the turning point in Bella Baxter and Duncan Wedderburn’s journey from Gibraltar to Paris: a stop intended as a short lodging becomes the setting for Wedderburn’s five-day gambling binge and Bella’s decision to get them away before he can lose anything more.

Arrival and unexpected stay

After leaving Gibraltar, Bella and Wedderburn travel by passenger ship to Marseille. Wedderburn orders wine with their meals, though Bella drinks none, and spends the afternoons and evenings playing cards in the main saloon, continuing long after Bella has gone to bed. On the night before they dock, he returns with winnings and newly restored confidence. Bella recognizes the danger in this apparent good fortune, even as she begins to enjoy what he calls their second honeymoon. Instead of continuing directly to Paris, they take a hotel recommended by one of the card players. That acquaintance also introduces Wedderburn to a café, club, or card school where he can play each afternoon and evening. The delay shifts the journey’s balance: Wedderburn has the cards and the prospect of winnings, while Bella waits at the hotel, drinking cup after cup of chocolate and reading Thomas Malthus’s An Essay on the Principle of Population.

Five days of gambling

Wedderburn takes five days to lose everything he has. Bella watches the loss unfold from the hotel rather than joining the play. When he returns to their room, he admits that he is cleaned out and asks whether she has enough to pay for the hotel. His defeat is not followed by the fury Bella had expected; instead, he presents himself as once again at her mercy, even suggesting that she prefers him this way. The reversal exposes the fragility beneath the swagger Bella had admired. His earlier winnings had seemed to restore their intimacy, but in Marseille the same appetite for play consumes his money and leaves their immediate plans dependent on Bella’s decisions. The hotel stop therefore turns a travelling romance into a practical crisis.

Departure for Paris

Bella says she will not use Godwin Baxter’s money until the last possible moment. She packs essentials into a handbag, makes herself and Wedderburn presentable, and takes him to the railway station. When he tries to return for a dressing case containing silver-mounted brushes that had belonged to his father, she refuses: the room had been booked for them, and she treats the brushes as payment the hotel can keep. The episode shows her choosing escape over the recovery of his possessions. They board an overnight train to Paris. Bella sleeps sitting upright on a wooden bench in a third-class carriage, while Wedderburn arrives sleepless and close to collapse. Marseille is thus more than a stop on the route: it is where Bella’s watchfulness becomes action, and where Wedderburn’s gambling changes their journey from shared adventure into a departure she must organize.