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Prelims.qxd 3/2/2007 10:26 AM Page 1

THREATS FROM CAR TRAFFIC TO THE

QUALITY OF URBAN LIFE:
PROBLEMS, CAUSES, AND SOLUTIONS
This page intentionally left blank
Prelims.qxd 3/2/2007 10:26 AM Page 3

THREATS FROM CAR TRAFFIC

TO THE QUALITY OF
URBAN LIFE:
PROBLEMS, CAUSES, AND SOLUTIONS

Edited by
TOMMY GÄRLING
Göteborg University, Sweden
and
LINDA STEG
University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Amsterdam – Boston – Heidelberg – London – New York – Oxford – Paris

San Diego – San Francisco – Singapore – Sydney – Tokyo
Prelims.qxd 3/2/2007 10:26 AM Page 4

Elsevier
Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK
Radarweg 29, PO Box 211, 1000 AE Amsterdam, The Netherlands

First edition 2007

Copyright © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system

or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher

Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights
Department in Oxford, UK: phone (+44) (0) 1865 843830; fax (+44) (0) 1865 853333;
email: [email protected]. Alternatively you can submit your request online by
visiting the Elsevier web site at http://elsevier.com/locate/permissions, and selecting
Obtaining permission to use Elsevier material

Notice
No responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons
or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use
or operation of any methods, products, instructions or ideas contained in the material
herein. Because of rapid advances in the medical sciences, in particular, independent
verification of diagnoses and drug dosages should be made

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN: 978-0-08-044853-4

For information on all Elsevier publications

visit our website at books.elsevier.com

Printed and bound in The Netherlands

07 08 09 10 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Preface.qxd 2/19/2007 11:18 AM Page v

PREFACE
When thinking about current growth trends in motorized traffic and in particular private
car use, there are many reasons to be worried about the future, even the near future. The
ever-increasing documentation of negative effects on the environment, most importantly
the transport sector’s adverse effects on global climate change, is one reason for serious
concern. Not enough seems to be done. Some have argued that the political system is non-
linear – when the situation becomes really severe, politicians will react forcefully. This
may or may not be an over-optimistic view.

There must be reasons why the public does not react strongly. The private car is instru-
mental for many important and desirable activities that people have time to engage in.
And they gain even more time from using the car, at least as long as it remains a fast
mode of daily travel. However, we know that this is no longer always the case. That
people continue to use the car may therefore appear strange. Apparently, other factors
account for this: freedom of choice, resistance to change a habit, affective attachment to
the car, and the pleasure to drive. A diluted responsibility for undertaking required
changes is an additional important factor.

In particular, in urban areas the negative effects of private car use are felt. Noise pollu-
tion, air pollution, pedestrian traffic accidents, infringement on land use resulting in the
destruction of historic, cultural, and restorative qualities are among the most severe neg-
ative threats to the quality of urban life. A primary cause is the immense growth in
urban populations, car ownership, and car use.

How can urban-life quality be restored? In any solution private car use must most likely
be restrained, although not banished. Is increasing the price a solution? Regulation?
Information and education?

We were lucky to manage to recruit scholars as authors of the chapters in this book,
who are experts on various aspects of (i) what the threats are from car traffic, (ii) which
the determinants of car use are, and (iii) what possible policy measures for curtailing car
use can be implemented. This guaranteed a broad coverage of both positive and nega-
tive aspects of private car use in urban areas. We hope readers coming from one of the
many disciplines represented by the authors of chapters in this book will appreciate this
broad coverage. At the same time, we are particularly pleased that all chapters take a
behavioural perspective on the problems as well as their solutions. This is needed as a
contrast to other perspectives that tend to dominate. After all, it is ordinary people who
are both drivers benefiting from the car (excluding the benefits to the car producers) and
are exposed to the negative effects. We hope that this message will get through to pol-
icy makers in the transport sector.
Preface.qxd 2/19/2007 11:18 AM Page vi

vi Preface

We would like to thank all authors for their work and the following persons who were
willing to thoroughly review chapter drafts and did so in a timely manner: Staffan
Hygge, Lena Nilsson, Dan Strömberg, Bert Van Wee, Erik Verhoef, Bertil Vilhelmson,
and Emile Quinet.

Tommy Gärling
Linda Steg October, 2006
LOC.qxd 2/19/2007 11:43 AM Page vii

vii

CONTRIBUTORS
Gary L. Allen
Department of Psychology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

Kay W. Axhausen
Institute of Transport Planning, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich,
Switzerland

Anke Blöbaum
Workgroup of Cognition and Environmental Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum,
Bochum, Germany

Karel Brookhuis
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of
Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Delft University of Technology, Faculty of
Technology, Policy and Management

Dick de Waard
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of
Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands; Delft University of Technology, Faculty of
Technology, Policy and Management

Philippe Domergue
Conseil Supérieur du Service Public Ferroviaire (CSSPF), Paris, France

Satoshi Fujii
Department of Civil Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan

Tommy Gärling
Department of Psychology, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

Birgitta Gatersleben
Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK

Robert Gifford
Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

Reginald G. Golledge
Department of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Phil Goodwin
Centre for Transport and Society, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK
LOC.qxd 2/19/2007 11:43 AM Page viii

viii Contributors

Terry Hartig
Institute for Housing and Urban Research, Uppsala University, Gävle, Sweden

Cecilia Jakobsson
Department of Psychology, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

Jeff Kenworthy
Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, Murdoch,
WA, Australia

Peter Loukopoulos
Institute for Human-Environment Systems, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology
Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

Ellen Matthies
Workgroup of Cognition and Environmental Psychology, Ruhr-University Bochum,
Bochum, Germany

Henk M.E. Miedema

Department of Environment and Health, Netherlands Organisation for Applied
Scientific Research (TNO), Delft, The Netherlands

Peter Newman
Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy, Murdoch University, Murdoch,
WA, Australia

Emile Quinet
Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, France

Geertje Schuitema
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of
Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Linda Steg
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of
Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands

Stephen Stradling
Transport Research Institute, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK

John Thøgersen
Department of Marketing and Statistics, Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus
University, Aarhus, Denmark
LOC.qxd 2/19/2007 11:43 AM Page ix

Contributors ix

Barry Ubbels
NEA Transport Research and Training (member of Panteia), Rijswijk,
The Netherlands

Bert Van Wee

Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

Erik Verhoef
Department of Spatial Economics, Free University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands

Bertil Vilhelmson
Department of Human and Economic Geography, School of Economics and Law,
Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

Charles Vlek
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of
Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
This page intentionally left blank
Contents.qxd 3/9/2007 10:42 AM Page xi

xi

CONTENTS
Tommy Gärling and Linda Steg: Preface ......................................................................v
Contributors ...............................................................................................................vii

Introductory Chapter
1. Linda Steg and Tommy Gärling: Introduction .......................................................1

Part 1: Threats to the Quality of Urban Life from Car Traffic

2. Bert Van Wee: Environmental Effects of Urban Traffic .......................................11
3. Robert Gifford and Linda Steg: The Impact of Automobile
Traffic on Quality of Life ....................................................................................33
4. Henk M.E. Miedema: Adverse Effects of Traffic Noise .......................................53
5. Gary L. Allen and Reginald G. Golledge: Wayfinding in
Urban Environments ...........................................................................................79
6. Terry Hartig: Congruence and Conflict between Car Transportation
and Psychological Restoration ...........................................................................103
7. Philippe Domergue and Emile Quinet: Assessment of
External Costs: How and Why?.........................................................................123

Part 2: Determinants of Private Car Use

8. Bertil Vilhelmson: The Use of the Car–Mobility Dependencies
of Urban Everyday Life .....................................................................................145
9. Kay W. Axhausen: Concepts of Travel Behaviour Research ..............................165
10. Stephen Stradling: Determinants of Car Dependence .........................................187
11. Cecilia Jakobsson: Instrumental Motives for Private Car Use ............................205
12. Birgitta Gatersleben: Affective and Symbolic Aspects of Car Use ......................219
13. Satoshi Fujii and Tommy Gärling: Role and Acquisition
of Car-Use Habit ..............................................................................................235
14. Ellen Matthies and Anke Blöbaum: Ecological Norm Orientation
and Private Car Use ..........................................................................................251

Part 3: Policy Measures Aimed at Reducing Private Car Use

15. Peter Loukopoulos: A Classification of Travel Demand
Management Measures ......................................................................................275
16. Peter Newman and Jeff Kenworthy: Sustainable Urban
Form: Transport Infrastructure and Transport Policies .....................................293
17. Tommy Gärling and Peter Loukopoulos: Effectiveness,
Public Acceptance, and Political Feasibility of Coercive
Measures for Reducing Car Traffic ...................................................................313
18. Barry Ubbels and Erik Verhoef: The Economic Theory of
Transport Pricing ..............................................................................................325
Contents.qxd 3/9/2007 10:42 AM Page xii

xii Contents

19. Linda Steg and Geertje Schuitema: Behavioural Responses to

Transport Pricing: A Theoretical Analysis .........................................................347
20. John Thøgersen: Social Marketing of Alternative Transportation Modes ..........367
21. Karel Brookhuis and Dick de Waard: Intelligent Transport
Systems for Vehicle Drivers ...............................................................................383
22. Phil Goodwin: Effectiveness of Transport Policies in
Reducing Car Travel .........................................................................................401

Concluding Chapter
23. Charles Vlek: Societal Management of Sustainable Transportation:
International Policy Review, Commons Dilemmas and
Solution Strategies .............................................................................................425

Author Index ............................................................................................................451

Subject Index ............................................................................................................469
Ch001.qxd 2/22/2007 1:56 PM Page 1

Threats from Car Traffic to the Quality of Urban Life 1

Tommy Gärling and Linda Steg (Editors)
© 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION

Linda Steg, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences,

University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Tommy Gärling, Department of Psychology, Göteborg University, Göteborg, Sweden

ABSTRACT
This introduction briefly overviews the following chapters in the book. The chapters focus on a
wide range of behavioural issues related to (i) what the threats are to the urban quality of life from
car traffic (and how urban life quality may be defined and measured); (ii) which are the determi-
nants of car use (instrumental, affective/symbolic, or habit) including the possible role played by an
ecological orientation; and (iii) how the problems of car use may effectively be reduced through
policies forcing or encouraging changes in car use.

BACKGROUND

Motorised traffic is a major contributor to environmental problems at a global scale. In

urban areas quality of life is threatened by the steady growth of motorised traffic.
Private car use is a major source of these problems. It is widely acknowledged that these
problems cannot be effectively controlled by means of new technology aimed at reduc-
ing the negative impacts per vehicle. Changes in volumes of car traffic are needed as well
(OECD, 1996; Gärling et al., 2002; Steg and Gifford, 2005). Thus, policies must target
the demand for car use.

To effectively reduce the problems resulting from motorised traffic, the nature of these
problems must be understood. Moreover, knowledge is needed regarding which behav-
iours contribute to these problems; which factors affect such behaviours; and how the
relevant behaviours (and underlying determinants) may be changed to reduce the prob-
lems. Given the nature of these problems and the many different factors affecting travel
behaviour, and more specifically, car use, a multidisciplinary perspective is warranted to
address the urgent issues.
Ch001.qxd 2/22/2007 1:56 PM Page 2

2 Threats from Car Traffic to the Quality of Urban Life

Private car use is a major source of threat to urban quality of life. Therefore, this
volume focuses on private car use. In the past decades, scholars from different disci-
plines have conducted numerous relevant studies on problems resulting from car use,
factors influencing the level of car use, and ways to reduce car use to manage these
problems. These studies have typically been conducted from a unidisciplinary perspec-
tive. Insights from such unidisciplinary studies need to be combined and integrated to
understand the complexity of the problems of car use and possible solutions for it.

AIMS

This book aims to provide a comprehensive overview of research on problems result-

ing from car use, factors influencing car use, and effective strategies to manage these
problems by reducing the level of car use. These issues are discussed from a behavioural
science perspective this book integrates insights from different disciplines. The book
consists of three sections, in which the following three main questions are being
addressed: (i) What are the threats to the urban quality of life from car traffic;
(ii) Which are the determinants of car use; and (iii) How can the problems of car use
effectively be reduced via behavioural changes of individual car users?

OVERVIEW OF CHAPTERS

The first part of the volume is devoted to problems resulting from car use. A detailed
description is given regarding negative impacts, such as air pollution, traffic noise,
destruction of natural areas and aesthetic qualities, and congestion. In Chapter 2, Van
Wee reviews environmental effects of urban traffic and related health effects. He
discusses emission of toxic and harmful substances related to climate change, acidifica-
tion, and air pollution (e.g., CO2, NOx, CO), as well as the so-called livability effects
related to running and parked vehicles. Furthermore, possible ways of reducing these
negative environmental effects are discussed. In Chapter 3, Gifford and Steg discuss
quality-of-life effects of (reductions in) car use. They argue that sustainable transporta-
tion implies finding a balance between collective qualities and individual quality of
life. Approaches to measuring quality of life are discussed, as well as implications for
informing policy.

Adverse effects of traffic noise are discussed in Chapter 4 by Miedema, who describes
various effects of noise annoyance focussing on reduced attention, increased arousal, and
affective reactions, such as fear. A distinction is made between instantaneous and chronic
effects, and their relationships with impacts on health are discussed. Furthermore,
Miedema discusses acoustic and non-acoustic factors that influence (effects of ) noise
annoyance. In Chapter 5, Allen and Golledge review research on car drivers’ navigation
Other documents randomly have
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 "For heaven's sake, ma tante, tell me what the Duc de Tremont thinks!"

Her aunt laughed softly. The intrigue and romance of it all entertained
her. She had the sense of having made a very pretty concession to her niece,
of having accomplished a very agreeable pleasure trip for herself. As for
young Sabron, he would be sure to be discovered at the right moment, to be
lionized, decorated and advanced. The reason that she had no wrinkles on
her handsome cheek was because she went lightly through life.

"He thinks, my dearest girl, that you are like all your countrywomen: a
little eccentric and that you have a strong mind. He thinks you one of the
most tender-hearted and benevolent of girls."

"Ma tante, ma tante!"

"He thinks you are making a little mission into Algiers among the sick
and the wounded. He thinks you are going to sing in the hospitals."

"But," exclaimed the girl, "he must think me mad."

"Young men don't care how mildly mad a beautiful young woman is,
my dear Julia."

"But, he will find out ... he will know."

"No," said the marquise, "that he will not. I have attended to that. He
will not leave his boat during the excursion, Julia. He remains, and we go
on shore with our people."

"How splendid!" sighed Julia Redmond, relieved.

"I'm glad you think so," said her aunt rather shortly. "Now I have a
favor to ask of you, my child."

Julia trembled.

"Ma tante?"

"While we are on board the yacht you will treat Robert charmingly."
 "I am always polite to him, am I not?"

"You are like an irritated sphinx to him, my dear. You must be

different."

"I thought," said the girl in a subdued voice, "that it would be like this.
Oh, I wish I had sailed on any vessel, even a cargo vessel."

Looking at her gently, her aunt said: "Don't be ridiculous. I only wish to
protect you, my child. I think I have proved my friendship. Remember,
before the world you are nothing to Charles de Sabron. A woman's heart,
my dear, has delusions as well as passions."

The girl crimsoned and bowed her charming head. "You are not called
upon to tell Robert de Tremont that you are in love with a man who has not
asked you to marry him, but you are his guest, and all I ask of you is that
you make the voyage as agreeable to him as you can, my dear."

Tremont was coming toward them. Julia raised her head and murmured:

"I thank you for everything. I shall do what I can." And to herself she
said: "That is, as far as my honor will let me."

CHAPTER XVI

THE DUKE IN DOUBT

The short journey to Africa—over a calm and perfect sea, whose waters
were voices at her port to solace her, and where the stars alone glowed
down like friends upon her and seemed to understand—was a torture to
Julia Redmond. To herself she called her aunt cruel, over and over again,
and felt a prisoner, a caged creature.
 Tremont found her charming, though in this role of Florence
Nightingale, she puzzled and perplexed him. She was nevertheless
adorable. The young man had the good sense to make a discreet courtship
and understood she would not be easily won. Until they reached Algiers,
indeed, until the night before they disembarked, he had not said one word to
her which might not have been shared by her aunt. In accordance with the
French custom, they never were alone. The marquise shut her eyes and
napped considerably and gave them every opportunity she could, but she
was always present.

The Duc de Tremont had been often in love during his short life. He
was a Latin and thought that women are made to be loved. It was part of his
education to think this and to tell them this, and he also believed it a proof
of his good taste to tell them this as soon as possible.

He was a thoroughly fine fellow. Some of his forefathers had fought and
fallen in Agincourt. They had been dukes ever since. There was something
distinctly noble in the blond young man, and Julia discovered it. Possibly
she had felt it from the first. Some women are keen to feel. Perhaps if she
had not felt it she might even have hesitated to go to Algiers as his guest.

From the moment that the old duchess had said to Robert de Tremont:

"Julia Redmond is a great catch, my dear boy. I should like to have you
marry her," her son answered:

"Bien, ma mère," with cheerful acquiescence, and immediately

considered it and went to Tarascon, to the Château d'Esclignac. When his
mother had suggested the visit, he told her that he intended making up a
party for the Mediterranean.

"Why don't you take your godmother and the American girl? Miss
Redmond has an income of nearly a million francs and they say she is well-
bred."

"Very good, ma mère."

 When he saw Miss Redmond he found her lovely; not so lovely as the
Comtesse de la Maine, whose invitation to dinner he had refused on the day
his mother suggested the Château d'Esclignac. The comtesse was a widow.
It is not very, very comme il faut to marry a widow, in the Faubourg St.-
Germain. Miss Redmond's beauty was different. She was self-absorbed and
cold. He did not understand her at all, but that was the American of her.

One of his friends had married an American girl and found out
afterward that she chewed gum before breakfast. Pauvre Raymond! Miss
Redmond did not suggest such possibilities. Still she was very different to a
French jeune fille.

With his godmother he was entirely at ease. Ever since she had paid his
trifling debts when he was a young man, he had adored her. Tremont,
always discreet and almost in love with his godmother, kept her in a state of
great good humor always, and when she had suggested to him this little
party he had been delighted. In speaking over the telephone the Marquise
d'Esclignac had said very firmly:

"My dear Robert, you understand that this excursion engages you to
nothing."

"Oh, of course, marraine."

"We both need a change, and between ourselves, Julia has a little
mission on foot."

Tremont would be delighted to help Miss Redmond carry it out. Whom

else should he ask?

"By all means, any one you like," said his godmother diplomatically.
"We want to sail the day after to-morrow." She felt safe, knowing that no
worldly people would accept an invitation on twenty-four hours' notice.

"So," the Duc de Tremont reflected, as he hung up the receiver, "Miss

Redmond has a scheme, a mission! Young girls do not have schemes and
missions in good French society."
 "Mademoiselle," he said to her, as they walked up and down on the deck
in the pale sunset, in front of the chair of the Marquise d'Esclignac, "I never
saw an ornament more becoming to a woman than the one you wear."

"The ornament, Monsieur?"

"On your sleeve. It is so beautiful. A string of pearls would not be more

beautiful, although your pearls are lovely, too. Are all American girls Red
Cross members?"

"But of course not, Monsieur. Are all girls anywhere one thing?"

"Yes," said the Duc de Tremont, "they are all charming, but there are
gradations."

"Do you think that we shall reach Algiers to-morrow, Monsieur?"

"I hope not, Mademoiselle."

Miss Redmond turned her fine eyes on him.

"You hope not?"

"I should like this voyage to last forever, Mademoiselle."

"How ridiculous!"

Her look was so frank that he laughed in spite of himself, and instead of
following up the politeness, he asked:

"Why do you think of Algiers as a field for nursing the sick,

Mademoiselle?"

"There has been quite a deputation of the Red Cross women lately going
from Paris to the East."

"But," said the young man, "there are poor in Tarascon, and sick, too.
There is a great deal of poverty in Nice, and Paris is the nearest of all."
 "The American girls are very imaginative," said Julia Redmond. "We
must have some romance in all we do."

"I find the American girls very charming," said Tremont.

"Do you know many, Monsieur?"

"Only one," he said serenely.

Miss Redmond changed the subject quickly and cleverly, and before he
knew it, Tremont was telling her stories about his own military service,
which had been made in Africa. He talked well and entertained them both,
and Julia Redmond listened when he told her of the desert, of its charm and
its desolation, and of its dangers. An hour passed. The Marquise d'Esclignac
took an ante-prandial stroll, Mimi mincing at her heels.

"Ce pauvre Sabron!" said Tremont. "He has disappeared off the face of
the earth. What a horrible thing it was, Mademoiselle! I knew him in Paris;
I remember meeting him again the night before he left the Midi. He was a
fine fellow with a career before him, his friends say."

"What do you think has become of Monsieur de Sabron?"

Miss Redmond, so far, had only been able to ask this question of her
aunt and of the stars. None of them had been able to tell her. Tremont
shrugged his shoulders thoughtfully.

"He may have dragged himself away to die in some ambush that they
have not discovered, or likely he has been taken captive, le pauvre diable!"

"France will do all it can, Monsieur..."

"They will do all they can, which is to wait. An extraordinary measure,

if taken just now, would probably result in Sabron being put to death by his
captors. He may be found to-morrow—he may never be found."

A slight murmur from the young girl beside him made Tremont look at
her. He saw that her hands were clasped and that her face was quite white,
her eyes staring fixedly before her, out toward Africa. Tremont said:
 "You are compassion itself, Mademoiselle; you have a tender heart. No
wonder you wear the Red Cross. I am a soldier, Mademoiselle. I thank you
for all soldiers. I thank you for Sabron ... but, we must not talk of such
things."

He thought her very charming, both romantic and idealistic. She would
make a delightful friend. Would she not be too intense for a wife? However,
many women of fashion joined the Red Cross. Tremont was a
commonplace man, conventional in his heart and in his tastes.

"My children," said the marquise, coming up to them with Mimi in her
arms, "you are as serious as though we were on a boat bound for the North
Pole and expected to live on tinned things and salt fish. Aren't you hungry,
Julia? Robert, take Mimi to my maid, will you? Julia," said her aunt as
Tremont went away with the little dog, "you look dramatic, my dear, you're
pale as death in spite of this divine air and this enchanting sea." She linked
her arm through her niece's. "Take a brisk walk with me for five minutes
and whip up your blood. I believe you were on the point of making Tremont
some unwise confession."

"I assure you no, ma tante."

"Isn't Bob a darling, Julia?"

"Awfully," returned her niece absent-mindedly.

"He's the most eligible young man in Paris, Julia, and the most difficult
to please."

"Ma tante," said the girl in a low tone, "he tells me that France at
present can do practically nothing about finding Monsieur de Sabron. Fancy
a great army and a great nation helpless for the rescue of a single soldier,
and his life at stake!"

"Julia," said the marquise, taking the trembling hand in her own, "you
will make yourself ill, my darling, and you will be no use to any one, you
know."
 "You're right," returned the girl, "I will be silent and I will only pray."

She turned from her aunt to stand for a few moments quiet, looking out
at the sea, at the blue water through which the boat cut and flew. Along the
horizon was a mist, rosy and translucent, and out of it white Algiers would
shine before many hours.

When Tremont, at luncheon a little later, looked at his guests, he saw a

new Julia. She had left her coat with the Red Cross in her cabin with her
hat. In her pretty blouse, her pearls around her neck, the soft flush on her
cheeks, she was apparently only a light-hearted woman of the world. She
teased her aunt gently, she laughed very deliciously and lightly flirted with
the Duc de Tremont, who opened a bottle of champagne. The Marquise
d'Esclignac beamed upon her niece. Tremont found her more puzzling than
ever. "She suggests the chameleon," he thought, "she has moods. Before,
she was a tragic muse; at luncheon she is an adorable sybarite."

CHAPTER XVII

OUT OF THE DESERT

From a dreamy little villa, whose walls were streaming with

bougainvillea, Miss Redmond looked over Algiers, over the tumult and
hum of it, to the sea. Tremont, by her side, looked at her. From head to foot
the girl was in white. On one side the bougainvillea laid its scarlet flowers
against the stainless linen of her dress, and on her other arm was the Red
Cross.

The American girl and the Frenchman had become the best of friends.
She considered him a sincere companion and an unconscious confederate.
He had not yet decided what he thought of her, or how. His promise to
remain on the yacht had been broken and he paid his godmother and Miss
Redmond constant visits at their villa, which the marquise rented for the
season.

There were times when Tremont thought Miss Redmond's exile a

fanatical one, but he always found her fascinating and a lovely woman, and
he wondered what it was that kept him from laying his title and his fortune
at her feet. It had been understood between the godmother and himself that
he was to court Miss Redmond à l'americaine.

"She has been brought up in such a shocking fashion, Robert, that

nothing but American love-making will appeal to her. You will have to
make love to her, Robert. Can you do it?"

"But, marraine, I might as well make love to a sister of charity."

"There was la Belle Heloise, and no woman is immune."

"I think she is engaged to some American cowboy who will come and
claim her, marraine."

His godmother was offended.

"Rubbish!" she said. "She is engaged to no one, Bob. She is an idealist,

a Rosalind; but that will not prevent her from making an excellent wife."

"She is certainly very beautiful," said the Duc de Tremont, and he told
Julia so.

"You are very beautiful," said the Duc de Tremont to Miss Redmond, as
she leaned on the balcony of the villa. The bougainvillea leaned against her
breast. "When you stood in the hospital under the window and sang to the
poor devils, you looked like an angel."

"Poor things!" said Julia Redmond. "Do you think that they liked it?"

"Liked it!" exclaimed the young man enthusiastically, "couldn't you see
by their faces? One poor devil said to me: 'One can die better now,
Monsieur.' There was no hope for him, it seems."
 Tremont and the Marquise d'Esclignac had docilely gone with Julia
Redmond every day at a certain hour to the different hospitals, where Julia,
after rendering some slight services to the nurses—for she was not needed
—sang for the sick, standing in the outer hallway of the building open on
every side. She knew that Sabron was not among these sick. Where he was
or what sounds his ears might hear, she could not know; but she sang for
him, and the fact put a sweetness in her voice that touched the ears of the
suffering and uplifted those who were not too far down to be uplifted, and
as for the dying, it helped them, as the soldier said, to die.

She had done this for several days, but now she was restless. Sabron
was not in Algiers. No news had been brought of him. His regiment had
been ordered out farther into the desert that seemed to stretch away into
infinity, and the vast cruel sands knew, and the stars knew where Sabron
had fallen and what was his history, and they kept the secret.

The marquise made herself as much at home as possible in Algiers, put

up with the inefficiency of native servants, and her duty was done. Her first
romantic élan was over. Sabron had recalled to her the idyl of a love-affair
of a quarter of a century before, but she had been for too long the Marquise
d'Esclignac to go back to an ideal. She pined to have her niece a duchess,
and never spoke the unfortunate Sabron's name.

They were surrounded by fashionable life. As soon as their arrival had

been made known there had been a flutter of cards and a passing of
carriages and automobiles, and this worldly life added to the unhappiness
and restlessness of Julia, Among the guests had been one woman whom she
found sympathetic; the woman's eyes had drawn Julia to her. It was the
Comtesse de la Maine, a widow, young as herself and, as Julia said, vastly
better-looking. Turning to Tremont on the balcony, when he told her she
was beautiful, she said:

"Madame de la Maine is my ideal of loveliness."

The young man wrinkled his fair brow.

"Do you think so, Mademoiselle? Why?"

 "She has character as well as perfect lines. Her eyes look as though they
could weep and laugh. Her mouth looks as though it could say adorable
things."

Tremont laughed softly and said:

"Go on, you amuse me."

"And her hands look as though they could caress and comfort. I like her
awfully. I wish she were my friend."

Tremont said nothing, and she glanced at him suddenly.

"She says such lovely things about you, Monsieur."

"Really! She is too indulgent."

"Don't be worldly," said Miss Redmond gravely, "be human. I like you
best so. Don't you agree with me?"

"Madame de la Maine is a very charming woman," said the young man,

and the girl saw a change come over his features.

At this moment, as they stood so together, Tremont pulling his mustache

and looking out through the bougainvillea vines, a dark figure made its way
through the garden to the villa, came and took its position under the balcony
where the duke and Miss Redmond leaned. It was a native, a man in filthy
rags. He turned his face to Tremont and bowed low to the lady.

"Excellency," he said in broken French, "my name is Hammet Abou. I

was the ordonnance of Monsieur le Capitaine de Sabron."

"What!" exclaimed Tremont, "what did you say?"

"Ask him to come up here," said Julia Redmond, "or, no—let us go

down to the garden."

"It is damp," said Tremont, "let me get you a shawl."

 "No, no, I need nothing."

She had hurried before him down the little stairs leading into the garden
from the balcony, and she had begun to speak to the native before Tremont
appeared. In this recital he addressed his words to Julia alone.

"I am a very poor man, Excellency," he said in a mellifluous tone, "and

very sick."

"Have you any money, Monsieur?"

"Pray do not suggest it," said the duke sharply. "Let him tell what he
will; we will pay him later."

"I have been very sick," said the man. "I have left the army. I do not like
the French army," said the native simply.

"You are very frank," said Tremont brutally. "Why do you come here at
any rate?"

"Hush," said Julia Redmond imploringly. "Do not anger him, Monsieur,
he may have news." She asked: "Have you news?" and there was a note in
her voice that made Tremont glance at her.

"I have seen the excellency and her grandmother," said the native,
"many times going into the garrison."

"What news have you of Captain de Sabron?" asked the girl directly.
Without replying, the man said in a melancholy voice:

"I was his ordonnance, I saw him fall in the battle of Dirbal. I saw him
shot in the side. I was shot, too. See?"

He started to pull away his rags. Tremont clutched him.

"You beast," he muttered, and pushed him back. "If you have anything
to say, say it."

Looking at Julia Redmond's colorless face, the native asked meaningly:

 "Does the excellency wish any news?"

"Yes," said Tremont, shaking him. "And if you do not give it, it will be
the worse for you."

"Monsieur le Capitaine fell, and I fell, too; I saw no more."

Tremont said:

"You see the fellow is half lunatic and probably knows nothing about
Sabron. I shall put him out of the garden."

But Miss Redmond paid no attention to her companion. She controlled

her voice and asked the man:

"Was the Capitaine de Sabron alone?"

"Except," said the native steadily, with a glance of disgust at the duke,
"except for his little dog."

"Ah!" exclaimed Julia Redmond, with a catch in her voice, "do you hear
that? He must have been his servant. What was the dog's name?"

"My name," said the native, "is Hammet Abou."

To her at this moment Hammet Abou was the most important person in
North Africa.

"What was the little dog's name, Hammet Abou?"

The man raised his eyes and looked at the white woman with
admiration.

"Pitchouné," he said, and saw the effect.

Tremont saw the effect upon her, too.

"I have a wife and ten children," said the man, "and I live far away."
 "Heavens! I haven't my purse," said Julia Redmond. "Will you not give
him something, Monsieur?"

"Wait," said Tremont, "wait. What else do you know? If your

information is worth anything to us we will pay you, don't be afraid."

"Perhaps the excellency's grandmother would like to hear, too," said the
man naively.

Julia Redmond smiled: the youthful Marquise d'Esclignac!

Once more Tremont seized the man by the arm and shook him a little.

"If you don't tell what you have to say and be quick about it, my dear
fellow, I shall hand you over to the police."

"What for?" said the man, "what have I done?"

"Well, what have you got to tell, and how much do you want for it?"

"I want one hundred francs for this," and he pulled out from his dirty
rags a little packet and held it up cautiously.

It looked like a package of letters and a man's pocketbook.

"You take it," said the Duc de Tremont to Julia Redmond, "you take it,
Mademoiselle." She did so without hesitation; it was evidently Sabron's
pocketbook, a leather one with his initials upon it, together with a little
package of letters. On the top she saw her letter to him. Her hand trembled
so that she could scarcely hold the package. It seemed to be all that was left
to her. She heard Tremont ask:

"Where did you get this, you miserable dog?"

"After the battle," said the man coolly, with evident truthfulness, "I was
very sick. We were in camp several days at ——. Then I got better and
went along the dried river bank to look for Monsieur le Capitaine, and I
found this in the sands."
 "Do you believe him?" asked Julia Redmond.

"Hum," said Tremont. He did not wish to tell her he thought the man
capable of robbing the dead body of his master. He asked the native: "Have
you no other news?"

The man was silent. He clutched the rags at his breast and looked at
Julia Redmond.

"Please give him some money, Monsieur."

"The dog!" Tremont shook him again. "Not yet." And he said to the
man: "If this is all you have to tell we will give you one hundred francs for
this parcel. You can go and don't return here again."

"But it is not all," said the native quietly, looking at Julia.

Her heart began to beat like mad and she looked at the man. His keen
dark eyes seemed to pierce her.

"Monsieur," said the American girl boldly, "would you leave me a

moment with him? I think he wants to speak with me alone."

But the Duc de Tremont exclaimed in surprise:

"To speak with you alone, Mademoiselle! Why should he? Such a thing
is not possible!"

"Don't go far," she begged, "but leave us a moment, I pray."

When Tremont, with great hesitation, took a few steps away from them
and she stood face to face with the creature who had been with Sabron and
seen him fall, she said earnestly:

"Now speak without reserve. Tell me everything."

The face of the man was transformed. He became human, devoted,

ardent.
 "Excellency," he said swiftly in his halting French, "I loved Monsieur le
Capitaine. He was so kind and such a brave soldier. I want to go to find
Monsieur le Capitaine, but I am ill and too weak to walk. I believe I know
where he is hid—I want to go."

The girl breathed:

"Oh, can it be possible that what you say is true, Hammet Abou? Would
you really go if you could?"

The man made, with a graceful gesture of his hand, a map in the air.

"It was like this," he said; "I think he fell into the bed of an old river. I
think he drew himself up the bank. I followed the track of his blood. I was
too weak to go any farther, Excellency."

"And how could you go now?" she asked.

"By caravan, like a merchant, secretly. I would find him."

Julia Redmond put out a slim hand, white as a gardenia. The native
lifted it and touched his forehead with it.

"Hammet Abou," she said, "go away for to-night and come to-morrow
—we will see you." And without waiting to speak again to Monsieur de
Tremont, the native slid away out of the garden like a shadow, as though his
limbs were not weak with disease and his breast shattered by shot.

When Monsieur de Tremont had walked once around the garden,

keeping his eyes nevertheless on the group, he came back toward Julia
Redmond, but not quickly enough, for she ran up the stairs and into the
house with Sabron's packet in her hand.
 CHAPTER XVIII

TWO LOVELY WOMEN

There was music at the Villa des Bougainvilleas. Miss Redmond sang;
not Good-night, God Keep You Safe, but other things. Ever since her talk
with Hammet Abou she had been, if not gay, in good spirits, more like her
old self, and the Marquise d'Esclignac began to think that the image of
Charles de Sabron had not been cut too deeply upon her mind. The
marquise, from the lounge in the shadow of the room, enjoyed the picture
(Sabron would not have added it to his collection) of her niece at the piano
and the Duc de Tremont by her side. The Comtesse de la Maine sat in a
little shadow of her own, musing and enjoying the picture of the Duc de
Tremont and Miss Redmond very indifferently. She did not sing; she had no
parlor accomplishments. She was poor, a widow, and had a child. She was
not a brilliant match.

From where he stood, Tremont could see the Comtesse de la Maine in

her little shadow, the oriental decorations a background to her slight
Parisian figure, and a little out of the shadow, the bright aigret in her hair
danced, shaking its sparkles of fire. She looked infinitely sad and infinitely
appealing. One bare arm was along the back of her lounge. She leaned her
head upon her hand.

After a few moments the Duc de Tremont quietly left the piano and
Miss Redmond, and went and sat down beside the Comtesse de la Maine,
who, in order to make a place for him, moved out of the shadow.

Julia, one after another, played songs she loved, keeping her fingers
resolutely from the notes that wanted to run into a single song, the music,
the song that linked her to the man whose life had become a mystery. She
glanced at the Duc de Tremont and the Comtesse de la Maine. She glanced
at her aunt, patting Mimi, who, freshly washed, adorned by pale blue
ribbon, looked disdainful and princely, and with passion and feeling she
began to sing the song that seemed to reach beyond the tawdry room of the
villa in Algiers, and to go into the desert, trying in sweet intensity to speak
and to comfort, and as she sat so singing to one man, Sabron would have
adored adding that picture to his collection.

The servant came up to the marquise and gave her a message. The lady
rose, beckoned Tremont to follow her, and went out on the veranda,
followed by Mimi. Julia stopped playing and went over to the Comtesse de
la Maine.

"Where have my aunt and Monsieur de Tremont gone, Madame?"

"To see some one who has come to suggest a camel excursion, I
believe."

"He chooses a curious hour."

"Everything is curious in the East, Mademoiselle," returned the

comtesse. "I feel as though my own life were turned upside down."

"We are not far enough in the East for that," smiled Julia Redmond. She
regarded the comtesse with her frank girlish scrutiny. There was in it a fine
truthfulness and utter disregard of all the barriers that long epochs of
etiquette put between souls.

Julia Redmond knew nothing of French society and of the deference due
to the arts of the old world. She knew, perhaps, very little of anything. She
was young and unschooled. She knew, as some women know, how to feel,
and how to be, and how to love. She was as honest as her ancestors, among
whose traditions is the story that one of them could never tell a lie.

Julia Redmond sat beside the Comtesse de la Maine, whose elegance

she admired enormously, and taking one of the lady's hands, with a frank
liking she asked in her rich young voice:

"Why do you tolerate me, Madame?"

"Ma chère enfant," exclaimed the comtesse. "Why, you are adorable."

"It is terribly good of you to say so," murmured Julia Redmond. "It
shows how generous you are."
 "But you attribute qualities to me I do not deserve, Mademoiselle."

"You deserve them and much more, Madame. I loved you the first day I
saw you; no one could help loving you."

Julia Redmond was irresistible. The Comtesse de la Maine had

remarked her caprices, her moods, her sadness. She had seen that the good
spirits were false and, as keen women do, she had attributed it to a love-
affair with the Duc de Tremont. The girl's frankness was contagious. The
Comtesse de la Maine murmured:

"I think the same of you, ma chère, vous êtes charmante."

Comtesse de la Main and Julia Redmond
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