enough strength to be seen and thanked for what he had done, even
if DeLisle had found it compatible with his official duty to say to a
deserter what was in his heart to say to Sanda's hero. And perhaps,
Sanda thought, it was as well that they did not meet just then.
Irrevocable things might have been spoken between them.

The day after her father's ship sailed for Algiers she took another that
went from Port Said to Marseilles. From Marseilles she travelled to
Paris, which was familiar ground to her. What she did there gave a new
fillip to the Stanton-DeLisle-St. George sensation, though at the same
time it put an extinguisher on all discussions: a blow to those retired
officers who liked writing to the papers.

Lest what the papers said should be prematurely seen by the
convalescent's eyes, however, Sanda hurried back to Egypt.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE GIFT

Max was sitting up in a reclining chair, for the first time, on the day
of Sanda's return to Cairo.

He knew that she had gone to France on business of some sort, but he had
no idea what it was. It did not occur to him that it might have to do
with his affairs. Probably (he thought) it was connected with Stanton,
who had left money, and who had "geographical investments," as he called
them, all over the world, in France, perhaps, among other places. But
somehow Max could not imagine Sanda accepting money for herself that
came from Stanton, even if it were legally hers.

Although Max was still weak, he had begun to think urgently,
insistently, about the future. All the objections that Colonel DeLisle
could see to the marriage of Sanda Stanton with the deserter St. George,
the deserter St. George saw, and many more. It was caddish to think of
marrying her, and monstrous to think of giving her up. His anxious
thoughts toiled round and round in a vicious circle whence there seemed
no way out.

In the morning the doctor came in and laid down on the table, with his
hat, gloves, and stick, a newspaper. As he examined his patient, the
nurse picked up the journal and began to glance quickly from column to
column in order to have absorbed the news by the time the doctor wanted
her services--or his paper. Suddenly, not being possessed of great
self-control except in professional emergencies, she gave vent to a
shrill little squeak of excitement.

Max and the doctor both turned their heads; and when the latter saw his
newspaper open in the young woman's hand, he