Hertfordshire lanes. But this was different. The bearing was erect and
manly, the faces perfectly cheerful; but there was the seriousness in them
of men who knew well the work to which they were going. I caught a little
quiet whistling, sometimes, but no singing. We greeted them as they
passed, with a shy "Good luck!" and they smiled shyly back, surprised, of
course, to see a couple of women on that road. But there was no shyness
towards the General. It was very evident that the relations between him
and them were as good as affection and confidence on both sides could make
them.

I still see the bright tea-table in that corner of a ruined farm, where
our young officers presently greeted us--the General marking our maps to
make clear where he had actually been--the Captain of the battery
springing up to show off his gramophone--while the guns crashed at
intervals close beside us, range-finding, probably, searching out a
portion of the German line, under the direction of some hidden observer
with his telephone. It was over all too quickly. Time was up, and soon
the motor was speeding back towards the Divisional Headquarters. The
General and I talked of war, and what could be done to stop it. A more
practical religion "lifting mankind again"?--a new St. Francis, preaching
the old things in new ways? "But in this war we had and we have no choice.
We are fighting for civilisation and freedom, and we must go on till we
win."


III

It was long before I closed my eyes in the pretty room of the old château,
after an evening spent in talk with some officers of the Headquarters
Staff. When I woke in the dawn I little guessed what the day (March 2nd)