"It isn't everyone can get a day off whenever he wants to, padre," he said.

"In the next war I shall be ..." Peter turned hard on his heel, and left him complaining to the derricks.
He was now all but cornered.

There was nobody else he particularly cared to ask unless it were Arnold, and he could not imagine Arnold and Julie together.

It appeared to him that fate was on his side; it only remained to persuade Julie to come alone.

He pedalled back to mess and dinner, and then, about half-past eight, strolled round to the hospital again.