Indeed the danger was that the other side of my mind, which should be busy with the great problem, would get atrophied, and that I should soon be mentally on a par with the ordinary backveld desperado.
We had agreed that it would be best to get into Germany at once, and when the agent on the quay told us of a train at midday we decided to take it.
I had another fit of cold feet before we got over the frontier.

At the station there was a King's Messenger whom I had seen in France, and a war correspondent who had been trotting round our part of the front before Loos.

I heard a woman speaking pretty clean-cut English, which amid the hoarse Dutch jabber sounded like a lark among crows.

There were copies of the English papers for sale, and English cheap editions.
I felt pretty bad about the whole business, and wondered if I should ever see these homely sights again.
But the mood passed when the train started.

It was a clear blowing day, and as we crawled through the flat pastures of Holland my time was taken up answering Peter's questions.