It was in one of these moments of her sorrow for him that he ventured to press once more the question of their return to New York. They were sitting on the balcony that opened from the first-floor windows of their villa, and were looking over the blue bay. "Don't you think," he asked, "that we might get back next month?" His tone was almost plaintive. In a child or a woman she would have thought it plaintive. She did not want to go back; she wanted never to see New York again, but she was touched by his appeal. "Perhaps," she granted. On the third morning of their stay, they drove into town and then out the rue de Rome and across the rue Dragon to the foot of the great hill on the top of which rises, from its ancient foundation, the modern monstrosity called Notre Dame de la Garde. They ascended in the open elevator the high cliff that fronts the rue Cherchell; then they climbed the broken flights of steps that lead to the church on the dome of which stands a gigantic, gilded figure of the Virgin. The neo-Byzantine interior was cool and still, and they wandered for a quarter of an hour about the place, looking at the crude pictures of storm-tossed ships, the offerings of sailors saved from the clutches of the sea by their prayers to Our Lady of Rescue; at the models of other ships, similarly saved, suspended by cords from the golden ceiling; at the little tiles, from floor to roof, bearing testimony to prayers answered or to the making of other prayers. "'We have prayed; we have waited; we have hoped,'" read Muriel, stopping before a small oblong of marble. "I wonder what it was," she mused, "that these people wanted." Stainton had seated himself in a nearby chair. "I don't know," he said; "but I hope they got it at last." His words, lightly spoken, seemed cruel to her. "Let's go outside," she answered, "and look at the view." "Why hurry?" complained her husband. "It's so cool and comfortable in here." "There must be a breeze on the terrace. There must always be a breeze out there." "Well, run along. I'll follow in a few minutes. I want a rest." Muriel's lips tightened. "Very well," she said. She went out to the walled walk that surrounds the church and strolled to the side overlooking the bay.