er! to have yesterday again!"

He did not ask her what she meant. He did not need to ask.

"It can be yesterday for you," he urged.

"No. Yesterday I was Sanda DeLisle. To-day I'm Sanda Stanton. Nothing
can change that."

"If you're unhappy your father can change it. You see, it's only the
church that----"

"_Only_ the church!"

"Forgive me. But the law would say----"

"It doesn't matter to me what the law would say. It's the thing what you
don't think matters that matters entirely to me. And even if it were
so--even if I were--unhappy instead of only homesick, and somehow ill, I
wouldn't go back if I could. I've written to my father. And that priest
from Touggourt will have told the Amaranthes. Every one knows. It would
be a disgrace to----"

"No! Not to you."

"I think it would. And to Richard. I have taken him by storm and almost
forced him to marry me. I would die and be left alone in the desert
rather than disgrace him in the world's eyes just when he's starting out
on the crowning expedition of his life."

"Who put such an idea into your head that you'd taken him by storm,
that----"

"Never mind. It is in my head, and it's true. I know it. Soldier, I'm
glad, oh, _so_ glad, that you're here! Will you help me?"

"You know I will," Max said, his heart bursting. If he had needed
payment for what he had done, he had it in full measure. She was glad he
was with her!

"Well, I've told you that I'm ill. It's my head--it aches horribly. I
hardly know what I'm doing or saying. I _can't_ be--in that tent
to-night!"

"You shall have mine," Max assured her quickly. "It's a good little
tent, got for the French doctor Stanton was telling us about, who
decided at the last minute not to come."

"Oh, thank you a thousand times. But you?"

"I shall rig up something splendid. They've got more tents than they
know what to do with. Several men fell out after Stanton had bought his
supplies."

"You _are_ good. Could I go to your tent now?"

"Of course. I'll take you there, and fetch your luggage myself. But
you're sure you won't go back while there's time?"

"Sure."

"If you're ill you can't ride on with the caravan."

"I shall be better to-morrow. God will help me, and you will help me,
too. I shall be able to go on for a while. Maybe it need not be for
long. People die in the desert. I've always thought it a beautiful
death. When you promise to marry a person it's for better or worse. And
I've never said