ce I had. It had drifted somehow
into our dug-out on the Scarpe, and after we had all stuck in the
second chapter it had disappeared in the mud to which it naturally
belonged. The lady praised its 'poignancy' and 'grave beauty'. I
assented and congratulated myself on my second escape--for if the
question had been put to me I should have described it as God-forgotten
twaddle.

I turned to the girl, who welcomed me with a smile. I had thought her
pretty in her V.A.D. dress, but now, in a filmy black gown and with her
hair no longer hidden by a cap, she was the most ravishing thing you
ever saw. And I observed something else. There was more than good looks
in her young face. Her broad, low brow and her laughing eyes were
amazingly intelligent. She had an uncanny power of making her eyes go
suddenly grave and deep, like a glittering river narrowing into a pool.

'We shall never be introduced,' she said, 'so let me reveal myself. I'm
Mary Lamington and these are my aunts ... Did you really like Leprous
Souls?'

It was easy enough to talk to her. And oddly enough her mere presence
took away the oppression I had felt in that room. For she belonged to
the out-of-doors and to the old house and to the world at large. She
belonged to the war, and to that happier world beyond it--a world which
must be won by going through the struggle and not by shirking it, like
those two silly ladies.

I could see Wake's eyes often on the girl, while he boomed and
oraculated and the Misses Wymondham prattled. Presently the
conversation seemed to leave the flowery paths of art and to verge
perilously near forbidden topics. He began to abuse our generals in the
field. I could not choose but listen. Miss Lamington's brows were
slightly bent, as if in disapproval, and my own temper began to rise.

He had every kind of idiotic criticism--incompetence,
faint-heartedness, corruption. Where he got the stuff I can't imagine,
for the most grousing Tommy, with his leave stopped, never put together
such balderdash. Worst of all he asked me to agree with him.

It took all my sense of discipline. 'I don't know much about the
subject,' I said, 'but out in South Africa I did hear that the British
leading was the weak point. I expect there's a good deal in what you
say.'

It may have been fancy, but the girl at my side seemed to whisper 'Well
done!'

Wake and I did not remain long behind before joining the ladies; I
purposely cut it short, for I was in