The heart of the man who was not her father yearned toward the girl.
"Shall I take you back?" he panted. "We're not far past Touggourt. To-morrow it will be too late, but now—now——"
"Now it's already too late. Oh, Soldier! 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——"