In the short story The Dead Harlequin, Alix Charnley is the widow of Lord Charnley. Fourteen years before the events in the story, Alix married Lord Charnley. The couple left for a honeymoon and then threw a celebratory fancy-dress ball on their return to their country house at Charnley. During this ball, Lord Charnley inexplicably took his own life.
Alix closed the house at Charnley shortly thereafter and then later gave birth to a son Dick Charnley. During the course of the story, Mr Satterthwaite asked Alix to come over to his place where he was entertaining some guests at dinner. Satterthwaite observed that Alix, who had never remarried, was once a glowing girl whom he last met thirteen years ago. Now she appeared more like "a Frozen Lady".