She sat down at the piano and her hands touched the keys. Her aunt, who was doing some dainty tapestry, whose fingers were creating silken flowers and whose mind was busy with fancies and ambitions very like the work she created, shrugged her shoulders. 

 "That seems to be," she said keenly, "the only tune you know, Julia." 

 "It's a pretty song, ma tante." 

 "I remember that you played and sang it the first night Sabron came to dinner."  The girl continued to finger among the chords.  "And since then never a day passes that sometime or other you do not play it through." 

 "It has become a sort of oraison, ma tante." 

 "Sabron," said the marquise, "is a fine young man, my child, but he has nothing but his officer's pay. Moreover, a soldier's life is a precarious one." 

 Julia Redmond played the song softly through. 

 The old butler came in with the evening mail and the papers. The Marquise d'Esclignac, with her embroidery scissors, opened Le Temps from Paris and began to read with her usual interest. She approached the little lamp on the table near her, unfolded the paper and looked over at her niece, and after a few moments, said with a slightly softened voice: 

 "Julia!"  Miss Redmond stopped playing. "Julia!"  The girl rose from the piano-stool and stood with her hand on the instrument. 

 "My dear Julia!"  Madame d'Esclignac spread Le Temps out and put her hand on it.  "As I said to you, my child, the life of a soldier is a precarious one." 

 "Ma tante," breathed Miss Redmond from where she stood.  "Tell me what the news is from Africa. I think I know what you mean." 

 She could not trust herself to walk across the floor, for Julia Redmond in that moment of suspense found the room swimming. 

 "There has been an engagement," said the marquise gently, for in spite of her ambitions she loved her niece.  "There has been an engagement, Julia, at Dirbal."  She lifted the newspaper and held it before her face and read: 

 "There has been some hard fighting in the desert, around about Dirbal. The troops commanded by Captain de Sabron were routed by the natives at noon on Thursday. They did not rally and were forced to retreat. There was a great loss of life among the 

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