Baxendale has not turned up at the club since, and we were all hoping he
had found suitable employment. This happens to nearly every one sooner or
later except to us seniors. But it had not happened to Baxendale; for
Freddy Catchpole, who has managed to get a job at the War Office, dined
one evening with Mrs. Baxendale, and she told him poor Gilbert had got so
bad with his nerves that he had to go to a nursing-home in the country to
take a cure. And there, for all I know, he will stay till the War is
over.




DULCE ET DECORUM




VII


DULCE ET DECORUM

David Saunderson lived on the top floor of one of the few lofty buildings
in Chelsea, and as his years increased, the ascent of the five flights of
stairs became a serious matter. His heart was none too sound, and the
three minutes he once needed to reach his attic from the ground floor had
already become five when the War began.

With the first shock of battles the emaciated remains of his bedridden