a wife too. Simon, the young surgeon, German-looking in
appearance, six feet of blond brute. But not blond brute really.
Whatever his appearance, there was in him something finer, something
tenderer, something nobler, to distinguish him from the brute. About
three times a week he walked into the ward with his fountain pen between
his teeth--he did not smoke, but he chewed his fountain pen--and when
the dressings were over, he would tell the nurse, shyly, accidentally,
as it were, some little news about his home. Some little incident
concerning his wife, some affectionate anecdote about his three young
children. Once when one of the staff went over to London on vacation,
Simon asked her to buy for his wife a leather coat, such as English
women wear, for motoring. Always he thought of his wife, spoke of his
wife, planned some thoughtful little surprise or gift for her.

You know, they won't let wives come to the Front. Women can come into
the War Zone, on various pretexts, but wives cannot. Wives, it appears,
are bad for the morale of the Army. They come with their troubles, to
talk of how business is failing, of how things are going to the bad at
home, because of the war; of how great the struggle, how bitter the
trials and the poverty and hardship. They establish the connecting link
between the soldier and his life at home, his life that he is compelled
to resign. Letters can be censored and all disturbing items cut out, but
if a wife is permitted to come to the War Zone, to see her husband,
there is no censoring the things she may tell him. The disquieting,
disturbing things. So she herself must be censored, not permitted to
come. So for long weary months men must remain at the Front, on active
inactivity, and their wives cannot come to see them. Only other people's
wives may come. It is not the woman but the wife that is objected to.
There is a difference. In war, it is very great.

There are many women at the Front. How do they get there, to the Zone
of the Armies? On various pretexts--to see sick relatives, in such and
such hospitals, or to see other relatives, brothers, uncles, cousins,
other people's husbands--oh, there are many reasons which make it
possible for them to come. And always there are the Belgian women, who
live in the War Zone, for at present there is a little strip of Belgium
left, and all the civilians have not been evacuated from the Army Zone.
So there are plenty of women, first and last. Better