le to say in the
drawing-rooms afterwards, 'Tenez, here I am; look at me for a voluntary
engage!'"

"I know a gentleman who enlisted in the aerodromes. He had a fine
uniform--he'd have done better to offer for the Opera-Comique. What am
I saying--'he'd have done better?' He'd have done a damn sight better,
oui. At least he'd have made other people laugh honestly, instead of
making them laugh with the spleen in it."

"They're a lot of cheap china, fresh painted, and plastered with
ornaments and all sorts of falderals, but they don't go under fire."

"If there'd only been people like those, the Boches would be at
Bayonne."

"When war's on, one must risk his skin, eh, corporal?"

"Yes," said Bertrand, "there are some times when duty and danger are
exactly the same thing; when the country, when justice and liberty are
in danger, it isn't in taking shelter that you defend them. On the
contrary, war means danger of death and sacrifice of life for
everybody, for everybody; no one is sacred. One must go for it,
upright, right to the end, and not pretend to do it in a fanciful
uniform. These services at the bases, and they're necessary, must be
automatically guaranteed by the really weak and the really old."

"Besides, there are too many rich and influential people who have
shouted, 'Let us save France!--and begin by saving ourselves!' On the
declaration of war, there was a big rush to get out of it, that's what
there was, and the strongest succeeded. I noticed myself, in my little
corner, it was especially those that jawed most about patriotism
previously. Anyway, as the others were saying just now, if they get
into a funk-hole, the worst filthiness they can do is to make people
believe they've run risks. 'Cos those that have really run risks, they
deserve the same respect as the dead."

"Well, what then? It's always like that, old man; you can't change
human nature."

"It can't be helped. Grouse, complain? Tiens! talking about
complaining, did you know Margoulin?"

"Margoulin? The good sort that was with us, that they left to die at le
Crassier because they thought he was dead?"

"Well, he wanted to make a complaint. Every day he talked about
protesting against all those things to the captain and the commandant.
He'd say after breakfast, 'I'll go and say it as sure as that pint of
wine's there.' And a minute later, 'If I don't speak, there's never a
pint of wine there at all.' And if you were passing later you'd h