human
You are like a man going to his death, she sobbed.
gpt
Oh, what have I done? It will be something worse, a thousand times worse, than _cellule_. _Mon Dieu!_ I know what they do to men of the Legion when they've deserted--even if they come back. I implore you to go away now. Do you want me to beg you on my knees?
human
For God's sake, Mademoiselle DeLisle!
gpt
Then will you go?
human
No! I told you nothing could make me leave you till--after it's over. What would be the use anyhow, even if I would go? If they're going to call me a deserter, I'm that already.
gpt
Ah! she hid her face in her hands, shivering with sobs.
human
The girl lifted her face and brushed away the tears.
gpt
Soldier, _if you don't go now, don't go at all_! Don't offer yourself up to punishment for what is not your fault, but mine, the fault of your colonel's daughter. Stay with me--stay with us! Keep the trust my father gave you, watching over me. Will you do that? _Will_ you, instead of going back straight to prison and spoiling your life? Join us and help us to find the Lost Oasis.
human
You say that already you've made yourself a deserter, she went on.
gpt
Then desert to us, I wanted you to join the Legion, and you did join; so I've called you '_my soldier_.' Now I want you not to go back to the Legion. It would be a horrible injustice for you to be punished as you would be. I couldn't be happy even with Richard, thinking of you in prison.
human
The world is a prison, if it comes to that!
gpt
For some people. Not for a man like you! Besides, some of the cells in the world's prison are so much more terrible than others. Come with us, and by and by, if we live, we shall reach Egypt. There you'll be free, as Manöel Valdez will be free outside Algeria and France.
human
My colonel's daughter asks me to do this?
gpt
Yes, _because_ I am his daughter as well as your friend. Do you think he'd like you to go back to Sidi-bel-Abbés under a cloud, with him far away, not able to speak for you? I know as well as if you'd told me that, if they tried you by court-martial at Oran, you wouldn't defend yourself as you would if my father had _ordered_ you to give up the march, instead of _asking_ you to go on a private errand for him with your friend. Because he did an irregular thing and trouble has come of it, don't I know you'd suffer rather than let details be dragged from you which might injure my father's record as an officer?
human
His record is far above being injured.
gpt
Is any officer's? From things I've heard, I'm afraid not! Once I told you that you were one of those men who think too little of themselves and sacrifice themselves for others. I only felt it then. I know it now. I'm so much better acquainted with you, my Soldier! You promised, if you answered my questions, to answer them truly. Would you explain in a court-martial that my father took you off duty, and told you, whatever happened, to look after me?
human
I have already explained in a letter to the deputy commanding officer. Probably the colonel has explained, too--more or less, as much as necessary.
gpt
I don't believe father would have thought it necessary to say much about me. He's old fashioned in his ideas of women and girls. And, you see, he had no reason to dream that anything could go wrong. He supposed that you would arrive on time. How much did you explain in your letter?
human
I said I had been unavoidably delayed in finishing my official errand.
gpt
What would you say if you were court-martialled for losing Manöel and being five days late yourself?
human
I don't know. It would depend on the questions.
gpt
Would you answer in any way that might do harm to my father, or would you sacrifice yourself again for him and for me?
human
It wouldn't be a sacrifice.
gpt
Do you think you could save yourself from prison?
human
Perhaps not, but I shouldn't care.
gpt
He is one who always gives,