Far in the rear men were killed and others were wounded, but no fragment of steel dropped in their trench.

There was not much danger unless one of the shells should burst almost directly over their heads, and they were so used to these bombardments that they paid little attention to them, except to keep close as long as they lasted.
Wharton resumed his novel, Carstairs, sitting on one end of a rude wooden bench, began a game of solitaire, and John, at the other end, gave himself over to dreaming, which the regulated thunder of many cannon did not disturb at all.
It had been months now since he had parted with Philip and Julie Lannes.
He had seen Philip twice since, but Julie not at all When the German army made a successful stand near the river Aisne, and both sides went into trenches, Lannes had come in the _Arrow_ and, in reply to John's restrained but none the less eager questions, had said that Julie was safe in Paris again with her mother, Antoine Picard and the faithful Suzanne.

She had wanted to return to the front as a Red Cross nurse, but Madame Lannes would not let her go.
A month later he saw Lannes again and Julie was still in the capital, but he inferred from Philip's words rather than his tone that she was impatient.

Thousands of French girls were at the front, attending to the wounded, and sharing hardship and danger.

John knew that Julie had a will like her brother's and he believed that, in time, she would surely come again to the battle lines.
The thought made him smile, and he felt a light glow pass over his face.
He knew it was due to the belief that he would see Julie once more, and yet the trenches now extended about four hundred miles across Northern France and Belgium.