d, A Company was marched into new
billets some miles behind the lines, in the once prosperous village of
Frelus. They had slouched along dead tired, drooping under their
packs, sodden with mud and sleeplessness, silent, with not a note of a
song among them--but at the entrance to the village, quickened by a
word or two of exhortation from officers and sergeants, they pulled
themselves together and marched in, heads up, forward, in faultless
step. The C.O. was jealous of the honour of his men. He assumed that
his predecessors in the village had been a "rotten lot," and was
determined to show the inhabitants of Frelus what a crack English
regiment was really like. Frelus was an unimportant, unheard-of
village; but the opinion of a thousand Freluses made up France's
opinion of the British Army. Doggie, although half stupefied with
fatigue, responded to the sentiment, like the rest. He was conscious
of making part of a gallant show. It was only when they halted and
stood easy that he lost count of things. The wide main street of the
village swam characterless before his eyes. He followed, not
directions, but directed men, with a sheep-like instinct, and found
himself stumbling through an archway down a narrow path. He had a dim
consciousness of lurching sideways and confusedly apologizing to a
woman who supported him back to equilibrium. Then the next thing he
saw was a barn full of fresh straw, and when somebody pointed to a
vacant strip, he fell down, with many others, and went to sleep.

The reveille sounded a minute afterwards, though a whole night had
passed; and there was the blessed clean water to wash in--he had long
since ceased to be fastidious in his ablutions--and there was
breakfast, sizzling bacon and bread and jam. And there in front of the
kitchen, aiding with the hot water for the tea, moved a slim girl,
with dark, and as Doggie thought, tragic eyes.

* * * * *

Kit inspection, feet inspection, all the duties of the day and dinner
were over. Most of the men returned to their billets to sleep. Some,
including Doggie, wandered about the village, taking the air, and
visiting the little modest cafes and talking with indifferent
success, so far as the interchange of articulate ideas was concerned,
with shy children. McPhail and Mo Shendish being among the sleepers,
Doggie mooned about by himself in his usual self-effacing way. There
was little to interest him in the long straggl