head. He was always lonely and wretched when Eugenia was away, and seemed to know when she left the hospital by the same intuition which had informed him of Captain Castaigne’s disappearance. For the[109] larger part of the time Duke could not be near his mistress in the hospital yet was content if he felt her not far away.

[109]

Nona wondered for a moment if Duke would get into any mischief by going with her. But then he was usually discretion itself and already hundreds of the American soldiers knew and loved him.

Besides, Nona was a little lonely herself and Duke’s society would be a consolation. Only this morning she had receive a letter from Sonya Valesky, telling her that she and Bianca were away at a quiet seaside resort in New Jersey in order to escape the heat. Sonya also mentioned that Carlo Navara had been spending a few days with them.

The friend who had been paying for Carlo’s musical education before his departure to join the army in Italy and his subsequent injury had arranged for Carlo to see the most eminent throat specialist in New York. The specialist had advised an operation. He gave Carlo no certain hope that the operation would give him back his beautiful voice, but there was one chance[110] in a hundred. The operation was a dangerous one, would he go through with it? So Carlo had come to ask Sonya’s advice. She had done so much for him in the past and they were such friends, he would not do what she did not think wise. Sonya added at the last that she had told Carlo to take the one chance, yet Nona could guess from her letter that she was worried over her decision.

[110]

And the letter had made Nona a little homesick. Since she had no family of her own, although Sonya was only her friend, she had come to feel closer to her than to anyone else. Besides, she was not reconciled to Sonya’s not coming with her to France, but preferring to remain in the United States to chaperon Bianca for the present at least.

But when Sonya had last been in France she had just returned from a Russian prison after having been sentenced to Siberia and then reprieved. So it was small wonder that her memory of those days was not pleasant. Sonya now seemed to love the United States and, in spite of the turmoil in[111] Russia in her effort for freedom, to be content to remain away from her own country.

[111]

But while she was 

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