YOUNG OFF. [Sighing] A good many.

GIRL. Any from the Rhine?

YOUNG OFF. Yes, I think so.

GIRL. Were they veree sad?

YOUNG OFF. Some were; some were quite glad to be taken.

GIRL. Did you ever see the Rhine? It will be wonderful to-night.
The moonlight will be the same there, and in Rooshia too, and France,
everywhere; and the trees will look the same as here, and people will
meet under them and make love just as here. Oh! isn't it stupid, the
war? As if it were not good to be alive!

YOUNG OFF. You can't tell how good it is to be alive till you're
facing death. You don't live till then. And when a whole lot of you
feel like that--and are ready to give their lives for each other,
it's worth all the rest of life put together.

[He stops, ashamed of such, sentiment before this girl, who
believes in nothing.]

GIRL. [Softly] How were you wounded, ni-ice boy?

YOUNG OFF. Attacking across open ground: four machine bullets got me
at one go off.