as
disabled? And should I manage to gather the necessary information before
the clock struck?

I knocked at the door, which was opened by a woman wearing a canvas apron
with a very tight string, her head surmounted by hair-curlers and a cloth
cap.

"Yes, thanking you kindly," she replied in answer to my question, "me son
'_as_ been wounded. 'Eard of it from the War Office. This war's a shocking
business."

I expressed my sympathy and asked for particulars.

"Yer see, he was at Gallipoli."

"At Gallipoli? Then it must have been some time ago? I understood--"

"It was this way. Me son, 'e ses to me, 'Mother,' 'e says, 'don't you
worry, but I've had a toe took off.' 'E never was one to put up a great
shout 'bout hisself, nor nothink of that. They took 'im down to their base
'ospital. Leeharver's the name. Perhaps you know it?"

I cast my mind over the AEgean Islands, from which Mudros sprang up very
large, and everything else sank into oblivion. "I'm afraid I don't," I
owned apologetically.

"Thought perhaps you might. L-E first word, H-A-V-R-E second--Leeharver."

"Oh-h, to be sure, Le Havre. I mean--yes, now you mention it, I think I
have heard of it. And is your son still there?"

Me son, 'e ses the vermin there was something shocking, and they spent all
their spare time 'unting theirselves."

"What? _not_ in the hospital? Oh, I see; you mean in the trenches."

"And 'im," she continued, not noticing my remark, 'and 'im that partic'lar
'bout 'is linen; couldn't use a 'andkerchief not unless it was spotless;
must 'av a clean one every Sunday as reg'lar as the week come round. It do
seem 'ard, don't it? They've pinched his sweater too. S'pose I shall 'av to
get 'im another, s'pose I shall; but it's a job to know how to get along
these times. And now margarine's up this week, that's the latest."

"But your son," I ventured tentatively--"is his foot still bad?"

"Oh, 'is _foot's_ right enough. It's 'is teeth that's the worry. 'E ses to
me, 'Mother,' he ses, 'afore I can do any good I must 'ave me teeth seen
to.' Oh, this fighting's cruel work!"

Could he have been wounded in the jaw? The thought was horrible, but I
remarked with affected cheerfulness, "Well, come, anyhow he is able to
write."

"Oh, 'e can _write_ right enough--got the prize at school for 'rithmatic,
'e did."

"Yes, but I mean if he is able to write he can't be so very bad."

"Oh, 'e didn't _write_ that. That was August come a twelvemont