er all,
Hullocher was right. When you were moving a Division, jobs had to be
done, possible or impossible; human beings had to be driven; the
supernatural had to be achieved. And it had been! That which in the
morning existed at Wimbledon now existed on the Downs. There it lay,
safe and chiefly asleep, in defiance of the weather and of accidents and
miscarriage! And the next day it would go on.

The vast ambitions of the civilian had sunk away. He thought, exalted as
though by a wonderful discovery:

"_There is something in this Army business_!"

He ardently desired to pursue it further. He ardently desired sleep and
renewal so that he might rise afresh and pursue it further. What he had
done and been through was naught, less than naught. To worry about
physical discomforts was babyish. Inviting vistas of knowledge,
technical attainment, experience, and endurance stretched before him,
illuminating the night. His mind dwelt on France, on Mons, on the idea
of terror and cataclysm. And it had room too for his wife and children.
He had had no news of them for over twenty-four hours; and he had broken
his resolve to write to Lois every day; he had been compelled to break
it. But in the morning, somehow, he would send a telegram and he would
get one.

"If it's true the French Government has left Paris--"

The nocturnal young ducks were passing the shelter.

"And who says it's true? Who told you, I should like to know?"

"The Major has heard it."

"Rats! I lay you a fiver the Allies are in Berlin before Christmas."

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