After a few moments the Duc de Tremont quietly left the piano and Miss Redmond, and went and sat down beside the Comtesse de la Maine, who, in order to make a place for him, moved out of the shadow. Julia, one after another, played songs she loved, keeping her fingers resolutely from the notes that wanted to run into a single song, the music, the song that linked her to the man whose life had become a mystery. She glanced at the Duc de Tremont and the Comtesse de la Maine. She glanced at her aunt, patting Mimi, who, freshly washed, adorned by pale blue ribbon, looked disdainful and princely, and with passion and feeling she began to sing the song that seemed to reach beyond the tawdry room of the villa in Algiers, and to go into the desert, trying in sweet intensity to speak and to comfort, and as she sat so singing to one man, Sabron would have adored adding that picture to his collection. The servant came up to the marquise and gave her a message. The lady rose, beckoned Tremont to follow her, and went out on the veranda, followed by Mimi. Julia stopped playing and went over to the Comtesse de la Maine. "Where have my aunt and Monsieur de Tremont gone, Madame?" "To see some one who has come to suggest a camel excursion, I believe." "He chooses a curious hour." "Everything is curious in the East, Mademoiselle," returned the comtesse. "I feel as though my own life were turned upside down." "We are not far enough in the East for that," smiled Julia Redmond. She regarded the comtesse with her frank girlish scrutiny. There was in it a fine truthfulness and utter disregard of all the barriers that long epochs of etiquette put between souls. Julia Redmond knew nothing of French society and of the deference due to the arts of the old world. She knew, perhaps, very little of anything. She was young and unschooled. She knew, as some women know, how to feel, and how to be, and how to love. She was as honest as her ancestors, among whose traditions is the story that one of them could never tell a lie. Julia Redmond sat beside the Comtesse de la Maine, whose elegance she admired enormously, and taking one of the lady's hands, with a frank liking she asked in her rich young voice: "Why do you tolerate me, Madame?" "_Ma chère enfant_," exclaimed the comtesse. "Why, you are adorable." "It is terribly good of you to say so," murmured Julia Redmond. "It shows how generous you are." "But you attribute qualities to me I do not deserve, Mademoiselle." "You deserve them and much more, Madame. I loved you the first day I saw you; no one could help loving you." Julia Redmond was irresistible. The Comtesse de la Maine had remarked her caprices, her moods, her sadness. She had seen that the good spirits were false and, as keen women do, she had attributed it to a love-affair with the Duc de Tremont. The girl's frankness was contagious. The Comtesse de la Maine murmured: "I think the same of you, _ma chère, vous êtes charmante_."