There was no kindling touch, no tremor of
dawn in that garden. It was as if it had removed the walls and put off
the lacing webs and the thick cloths of grey stuff by some mystic
impulse of its own, as if it maintained itself in stillness by an inner
flame. Only the very finest tissues yet clung to it, to show that it was
the same garden that disclosed itself in this clarity and beauty.

The next thing I remember is the Chaplain coming to me and our going
together into the E.s' dining-room, and Miss Ashley-Smith's joining us
there. My malady was contagious and she had caught it, but with no
damage to her self-control.

She says very simply and quietly that she is going back to Ghent. And
the infection spreads to the Chaplain. He says that neither of us is
going back to Ghent, but that he is going. The poor boy tries to arrange
with us how he may best do it, in secrecy, without poisoning the
Commandant[35] and the whole Ambulance with the spirit of return. With
difficulty we convince him that it would be useless for any man to go.
He would be taken prisoner the minute he showed his nose in the
"Flandria" and set to dig trenches till the end of the War.

Then he says, if only he had his cassock with him. They would respect
_that_ (which is open to doubt).

We are there a long time discussing which of us is going back to Ghent.
Miss Ashley-Smith is fertile and ingenious in argument. She is a nurse,
and I and the Chaplain are not. She has friends in Ghent who have not
been warned, whom she must go back to. In any case, she says, it was a
toss-up whether she went or stayed.

And while we are still arguing, we go out on the road that leads to the
village, to find the ambulances and see if any of the chauffeurs will
take us back to Ghent. I am not very hopeful about the means of
transport. I do not think that Tom or any of the chauffeurs will move,
this time, without orders from the Commandant. I do not think that the
Commandant will let any of us go except himself.

And Miss Ashley-Smith says if only she had a horse.

If she had a horse she would be in Ghent in no time. Perhaps, if none of
the chauffeurs will take her back, she can find a horse in the village.

She keeps on saying very quietly and simply that she is going, and
explaining the reasons why she should go rather than anybody else. And I
bring forward every reason I can think of why she should do nothing of
the sort.

I abhor the possibility of her going