Shall I ever eat a good dinner again ?' He looked wistfully at the bare table.
'Will you ever want to ?' said Arthur, quietly.
A momentary silence fell upon the little party.

Bernard Strang had lost two brothers in the war, and Chicksands had no sooner spoken than he reproached himself for a tactless brute.

But, suddenly, the bells of the Abbey rang: out above their heads, playing with every stroke on the nerves of the listeners.

For the voice of England was in them, speaking to that under-consciousness which the war has developed in us all.
'Any news ?' said Strang, looking at Arthur.
'No.

The Eastern business gets a little worse every day.' 'And the "Offensive"?
'Let them! Our men want nothing better.' On which the dinner resolved itself into a device for making the Captain talk.