"I intend to go with you, Hammet Abou," said he slowly, "if it can be arranged. Otherwise this expedition does not interest me." Two women said: "Oh, heavens!" at once. Robert de Tremont heard the note of anxiety in the younger voice alone. He glanced at the Comtesse de la Maine. "You are quite right, Madame," he said, "a man's life is at stake and we stand chaffing here. I know something of what the desert is and what the natives are. Sabron would be the first to go if it were a question of a brother officer." The Marquise d'Esclignac got down from her throne, trembling. Her eyes were fixed upon her niece. "Julia," she began, and stopped. Madame de la Maine said nothing. "Robert, you are my godson, and I forbid it. Your mother--" "--is one of the bravest women I ever knew," said her godson. "My father was a soldier." Julia withdrew her arm from the Comtesse de la Maine as though to leave her free. "Then you two girls," said the Marquise d'Esclignac, thoroughly American for a moment, "must forbid him to go." She fixed her eyes sternly upon her niece, with a glance of entreaty and reproach. Miss Redmond said in a firm voice: "In Monsieur de Tremont's case I should do exactly what he proposes." "But he is risking his life," said the Marquise d'Esclignac. "He is not even an intimate friend of Monsieur de Sabron!" Tremont said, smiling: "You tell us that he has no brother, _marraine_. _Eh bien_, I will pass as his brother." A thrill touched Julia Redmond's heart. She almost loved him. If, as her aunt had said, Sabron had been out of the question... "Madame de la Maine," said the Marquise d'Esclignac, her hands shaking, "I appeal to you to divert this headstrong young man from his purpose." The Comtesse de la Maine was the palest of the three women. She had been quietly looking at Tremont and now a smile crossed her lips that had tears back of it--one of those beautiful smiles that mean so much on a woman's face. She was the only one of the three who had not yet spoken. Tremont was waiting for her. Hammet Abou, with whom he had been in earnest conversation, was answering his further questions. The Marquise d'Esclignac shrugged, threw up her hands as though she gave up all questions of romance, rescue and disappointed love and foolish girls, and walked out thoroughly wretched, Mimi tinkling at her heels. The Comtesse de la Maine said to Julia: "_Ma chère_, what were the words of the English song you sang last night--the song you told me was a sort of prayer. Tell me the words slowly, will you?" They walked out of the vestibule together, leaving Hammet Abou and Tremont alone. CHAPTER XXI MASTER AND FRIEND