oss
and, henceforth, for an indeterminable period, he was to abide amidst the
discomforts and dangers of the Western Front, with five days' leave every
three months. The members of a group similarly attired whom I found
gathered by the after-rail were likewise cheerful. Two well-known
specialists from the Massachusetts General Hospital made significant the
hegira now taking place that threatens to leave our country, like
Britain, almost doctorless. When I reached France it seemed to me that I
met all the celebrated medical men I ever heard of. A third in the group
was a business man from the Middle West who had wound up his affairs and
left a startled family in charge of a trust company. Though his physical
activities had hitherto consisted of an occasional mild game of golf, he
wore his khaki like an old campaigner; and he seemed undaunted by the
prospect--still somewhat remotely ahead of him--of a winter journey
across the Albanian Mountains from the Aegean to the Adriatic.

After a restless night, we sailed away in the hot dawn of a Wednesday.
The shores of America faded behind us, and as the days went by, we had
the odd sense of threading uncharted seas; we found it more and more
difficult to believe that this empty, lonesome ocean was the Atlantic in
the twentieth century. Once we saw a four-master; once a shy, silent
steamer avoided us, westward bound; and once in mid-ocean, tossed on a
sea sun-silvered under a rack of clouds, we overtook a gallant little
schooner out of New Bedford or Gloucester--a forthfarer, too.

Meanwhile, amongst the Americans, the socializing process had begun.
Many elements which in a former stratified existence would never have
been brought into contact were fusing by the pressure of a purpose, of a
great adventure common to us all. On the upper deck, high above the
waves, was a little 'fumoir' which, by some odd trick of association,
reminded me of the villa formerly occupied by the Kaiser in Corfu
--perhaps because of the faience plaques set in the walls--although I
cannot now recall whether the villa has faience plaques or not. The room
was, of course, on the order of a French provincial cafe, and as such
delighted the bourgeoisie monopolizing the alcove tables and joking with
the fat steward. Here in this 'fumoir', lawyers, doctors, business men
of all descriptions, newspaper correspondents, movie photographers, and
millionaires who had never crossed save in a 'cabine de luxe