she carries in
her, that'll fade bit by bit and another'll come on top of it, and
she'll begin another life again.' Ah, if I didn't come back!"

He laughs heartily. "But I mean to come back. Ah, yes! One must be
there. Otherwise--I must be there, look you," he says again more
seriously; "otherwise, if you're not there, even if you're dealing with
saints and angels, you'll be at fault in the end. That's life. But I am
there." He laughs. "Well, I'm a little there, as one might say!"

I get up too, and tap him on the shoulder. "You're right, old pal,
it'll all come to an end."

He rubs his hands and goes on talking. "Yes, by God! it'll all finish,
don't worry. Oh, I know well there'll be hard graft before it's
finished, and still more after. We've got to work, and I don't only
mean work with the arms.

"It'll be necessary to make everything over again. Very well, we'll do
it. The house? Gone. The garden? Nowhere. All right, we'll rebuild the
house, we'll remake the garden. The less there is the more we'll make
over again. After all, it's life, and we're made to remake, eh? And
we'll remake our life together, and happiness. We'll make the days
again; we'll remake the nights.

"And the other side, too. They'll make their world again. Do you know
what I say?--perhaps it won't be as long as one thinks--"

"Tiens! I can see Madeleine Vandaert marrying another chap. She's a
widow; but, old man, she's been a widow eighteen months. Do you think
it's not a big slice, that, eighteen months? They even leave off
wearing mourning, I believe, about that time! People don't remember
that when they say 'What a strumpet she is,' and when, in effect, they
ask her to commit suicide. But mon vieux, one forgets. One is forced to
forget. It isn't the people that make you forget; you do it yourself;
it's just forgetfulness, mind you. I find Madeleine again all of a
sudden, and to see her frivvling there it broke me up as much as if her
husband had been killed yesterday--it's natural. But it's a devil of a
long time since he got spiked, poor lad. It's a long time since, it's
too long since. People are no longer the same. But, mark you, one must
come back, one must be there! We shall be there, and we shall be busy
with beginning again!"

On the way, he looks and winks, cheered up by finding a peg on which to
hang his ideas. He says--"I can see it from here, after the war, all
the Souchez people setting themselves again to work and to life--