'There is only a difference in the degree--and perhaps it is worse! If there were war, you would be one man in a hundred thousand, but now you will be one in ten or twenty, or as many as are to go.

Think what it would be if you were the only man in Italy, the one, single, only officer who could certainly accomplish something very dangerous to help your country--and if you refused to do it!' 'There are hundreds of better men than I for the work,' objected Giovanni.
'I doubt it.

Are there hundreds of engineer officers on the General Staff ?' 'No, but there are plenty----' 'A score, perhaps, and you have been chosen, no matter why, and there is danger, and there is a great thing to be done, perhaps a great good, which in the end will save the lives, or help the lives, of many Italians! And you want to refuse to do it--for what?
For a woman, for a girl you love! Do you think she will love you the more, or less, for keeping out of danger, if she is a true Italian as she thinks you are?
Why is it that our Italy, which no one thought much of a few years ago, is coming to the front in so many ways now?
It was not by staying at home for women's sake that our sailors have got nearer the North Pole than all the others who have tried! It is not by avoiding danger that our officers are learning to astonish everybody with their riding----' 'That is different,' objected Giovanni.

'It is one thing to do daring things----' 'Yes,' interrupted Angela, not letting him speak, 'it is the one and only thing, when it is good daring and can bring good, and helps the world to see that Italy is not dead yet, in spite of all that has been said and written against us and our unity.

No, no, I say! Go, do your duty, do and dare, wherever and howsoever your country needs you, and I will wait for you, and be glad to wait for that one reason, which is the best of all.