the noon sun
Spread them out . '' The savage authority of his general speech was softened for sake of his guest 's presence , but there was a covert tone in the words that made Cigarette murmur to herself : `` If he forget his promise , I will forgive him ! '' Cecil had not forgotten it ; neither had he forgotten the lesson that this fair aristocrate had read him in the morning . He saluted his chief again , set the chessbox down upon the ledge of the marble balustrade , and stood silent , without once glancing at the fair and haughty face that was more brilliant still in the African starlight than it had been in the noon sun of the Chasseurs ' Chambree . Courtesy was forbidden him as insult from a corporal to a nobly born beauty ; he no more quarreled with the decree than with other inevitable consequences , inevitable degradations , that followed on his entrance as a private under the French flag . He had been used to the impassable demarcations of Caste ; he did not dispute them more now that he was without , than he had done when within , their magic pale . The carvings were passed from hand to hand as the Marquis ' six or eight guests , listless willing to be amused in the warmth of the evening after their dinner , occupied themselves with the ivory chess armies , cut with a skill and a finish worthy a Roman studio .