, sacrifices
which he wasn't in the least making himself. Hoped we'd forgive him. He
couldn't say that if he were as young as us he'd enlist like a shot, any
more than he could say that if a woman jumped off Waterloo Bridge on a
dark night he'd jump in after her. On the whole he thought it would be
much easier to pretend he hadn't noticed. In fact that's very likely
what he _would_ do. But if someone, say the mother of the girl, pointed
out the body to him, then he'd have to come to a decision. Well, he was
in the position of that mother, he had come down to point out the body.
He confessed it wasn't the job he liked best, pointing out bodies for
other people to save, but he was doing it because he thought it might be
of some service. That was what we all had to realize, that it was a time
when we had to do things we didn't like. 'Business as usual' might be a
good motto, but 'Happiness as usual' was a thing we mustn't expect ..."

John fell into silence again.

"What else did he say?" asked Mary, still with her eyes fastened on his
face, as though she were looking at him for the last time.

"That was how he began. I can't tell you all he said afterwards, but I
felt as if I'd just fight for _him_, even if there was nobody else in
England ..."

"Aren't there lots of people who wouldn't mind going as much as you?"
said Mary timidly. "I mean men with no wives or children. Oughtn't they
to go first?"

"I suppose they ought. But, you see, you'd never get anywhere like that.
A would wait for B who was married but had no child, and B would wait
for C who wasn't married but had a mother, and C would wait for D who
was an orphan, and so on. That's what Mr. Denham said."

"I see," said Mary miserably.

"I don't quite understand what we're in the world for," said poor John,
"or what the world's for at all. But I suppose the great thing is
that--that good ideas should live and bad ideas should die ... I haven't
done much for good ideas so far, I'm not the sort of person who could
... just one out of thousands of others ... But I could do something for
good ideas out there. I could help beat the bad idea of War ... Mr.
Denham says if we win there's lots of men, all the best and cleverest in
the country, who are pledged to see that there shall be no more war.
Well, that's what I call a good idea ... only we've got to win first."

"I know it sounds a wretched thing to say, but what about money?" asked
Mary hesitatingly.

"M