Providence."

"Well spoken," said M. Barre. "Have some more champagne. I make the
most of the pleasure of your company, and so I break another bottle.
Besides, it may be the last I shall get for a time. There is trouble
brewing at Bompari--a native insurrection--and we may have to move at any
moment. However this Gabrielle affair turns out, you have your business
to do. You want to see the country, to study our life-well, come with
us. We will house you, feed you as we feed, and you shall have your
tobacco at army prices."

Much as Blake Shorland was moved by the events of the last few hours he
was enough the soldier and the man of the world to face possible troubles
without the loss of appetite, sleep, or nerve. He had cultivated a habit
of deliberation which saved his digestion and preserved his mental poise;
and he had a faculty for doing the right thing at the right time. From
his stand-point, his late adventure in the Cafe Voisin was the right
thing, serious as the results might have been or might yet be. He now
promptly met the French officer's exuberance of spirits with a hearty
gaiety, and drank his wine with genial compliment and happy anecdote.
It was late when they parted; the Frenchman excited, beaming, joyous,
the Englishman responsive, but cool in mind still.




III

After breakfast next morning Shorland expressed to M. Barre his intention
of going to see Gabrielle Rouget. He was told that he must not go alone;