minds
wandered away, and in their imagination they could see the soldiers in
France, crouching in the dark trenches, while the wind and rain beat
about them without pity; and in the mind of each of them, probing
painfully, was this persistent thought: Here we are in this comfort ...
and there they are _in that_!

5

When Mary had gone to bed, Mrs. Graham began to talk of her to Henry.

"I always knew that she and you would marry, Henry," she said, "even
when you seemed to have forgotten about her. You ... you were very fond
of Lady Cecily Jayne, weren't you, Henry?" He nodded his head. He wanted
to explain that that was over now, that it had been a passing thing that
had no durability, but he could not make the explanation, and so he did
not say anything. "I thought her a very beautiful woman," Mrs. Graham
went on. "If I'd been a boy I think I should have loved her, too. Boys
are like that!"

She was so gentle and kind and understanding that he lost his shyness,
and he confided in her as he would like to have confided in his mother
if she had been alive.

"Inside me," he said, "I always loved Mary, even when I was obsessed by
... by some one else. I can't tell you how happy I am, Mrs. Graham. I
feel as if I'd got home after a long and bitter journey ... and I don't
want to go away again ever. Just to look at Mary seems sufficient ... to
know that she's there ... that I can put out my hand and touch her...."

"Ninian will be glad, too," she said, speaking quickly to cover up the
difficulty he had in finishing his speech.

"We've been awfully good friends, we four," he replied, "Ninian and
Roger and Gilbert and I. I've always felt about them that we could go on
with our friendship just where we left off, even if we were separated
from each other for years. We're all proud of each other. I used to
think, when we first lived in that house in Bloomsbury, that we'd never
separate ... that we'd form a sort of brotherhood of work and friendship
... Roger always preached about The Job Well Done ... but, of course
that was impossible. We were bound to diverge and separate ... all sorts
of things compel men to do that. Roger married, and now Gilbert and
Ninian are soldiers...."

"I feel proud and afraid," Mrs. Graham said. "I'm glad that Ninian has
joined ... I think I should hate it if he hadn't ... and yet I wish too
that ... that he weren't in it. I'm not much of a patriot, Henry. I love
my son more than I love my c