"Julia," she began, and stopped.
Madame de la Maine said nothing.
"Robert, you are my godson, and I forbid it. Your mother—"
"—is one of the bravest women I ever knew," said her godson. "My father was a soldier."
Julia withdrew her arm from the Comtesse de la Maine as though to leave her free.
"Then you two girls," said the Marquise d'Esclignac, thoroughly American for a moment, "must forbid him to go." She fixed her eyes sternly upon her niece, with a glance of entreaty and reproach. Miss Redmond said in a firm voice:
"In Monsieur de Tremont's case I should do exactly what he proposes."
"But he is risking his life," said the Marquise d'Esclignac. "He is not even an intimate friend of Monsieur de Sabron!"
Tremont said, smiling:
"You tell us that he has no brother, marraine. Eh bien, I will pass as his brother."