"Madame!" said the Capitaine de Sabron, with his blood—all that was in him—rising to his cheeks.
"I mean that France has done nothing for you. France did not rescue you and you may feel like seeking a more—another career."
Sabron could not reply. Her ribbons and flowers and jewels shook in his eyes like a kaleidoscope. His flush had made him more natural. In his invalid state, with his hair brushed back from his fine brow, there was something spiritual and beautiful about him. The Marquise d'Esclignac looked on a man who had been far and who had determined of his own accord to come back. She said more gently, putting her hand affectionately over his:
"Get strong, Monsieur—get well. Eat all the good things we are making for you. I dare say that the army can not spare you. It needs brave hearts."
Sabron was so agitated after her departure that the nurse said he must receive no more visits for several days, and he meditated and longed and thought and wondered, and nearly cursed the life that had brought him back to a world which must be lonely for him henceforth.
When he sat up in bed he was a shadow. He had a book to read and read a few lines of it, but he put it down as the letters blurred. He was sitting so, dreaming and wondering how true or how false it was that he had seen Julia Redmond come several times to his bedside during the early days of his illness here in the hospital. Then across his troubled mind suddenly came the words that he had heard her sing, and he tried to recall them. The Red Cross nurse who so charitably sang in the hospital came to the wards and began her mission. One after another she sang familiar songs.
"How the poor devils must love it!" Sabron thought, and he blessed her for her charity.
How familiar was her voice! But that was only because he was so ill. But he began to wonder and to doubt, and across the distance came the notes of the tune, the melody of the song that had haunted him for many months:
"God keep you safe, my love,
All through the night;
Rest close in His encircling arms
Until the light.
My heart is with you as I kneel to pray,
Good night! God keep you in His care alway.
"Thick shadows creep like silent ghosts
About my head;
I lose myself in tender dreams
While overhead
The moon comes stealing through the window-bars,
A silver sickle gleaming 'mid the stars.