As for the telephone, for a day or two I just refused to answer it, because I thought I could not endure the horrible moment that came between saying 'Hello' and hearing the response.

That moment seemed a hundred years long, for I was always dreading to hear 'There is a telegram for Dr.Blythe.' Then, when I had shirked for a while, I was ashamed of leaving it all for mother or Susan, and now I make myself go.

But it never gets any easier.

Gertrude teaches school and reads compositions and sets examination papers just as she always has done, but I know her thoughts are over in Flanders all the time.
Her eyes haunt me.
"And Kenneth is in khaki now, too.

He has got a lieutenant's commission and expects to go overseas in midsummer, so he wrote me.