wedding present for Peggy and Oliver, a tortoise-shell-fitted
dressing-case for Peggy, and for Oliver a magnificent gold watch that
was an encyclopaedia of current information. He had never felt so
happy in his life, so enchanted with the grimly smiling old world.
Were it not for the Boche, it could hold its own as a brave place with
any planet going. He blessed Oliver, who, in turn, had blessed him as
though he had displayed heroic magnanimity. He blessed Peggy, who,
flushed with love and happiness and gratitude, had shown him, for the
first time, what a really adorable young woman she could be. He
thanked Heaven for making three people happy, instead of three people
miserable.

He marched along the wet pavements with a new light in his eyes, with
a new exhilarating breath in his nostrils. He was free. The war over,
he could do exactly what he liked. An untrammelled future lay before
him. During the war he could hop about trenches and shell-holes with
the freedom of a bird....

Those awful duty letters to Peggy! Only now he fully realized their
never-ending strain. Now he could write to her spontaneously, whenever
the mood suited, write to her from his heart: "Dear old Peggy, I'm so
glad you're happy. Oliver's a splendid chap. Et cetera, et cetera, et
cetera." He had lost a dreaded bride; but he had found a dear and
devoted friend. Nay, more: he had found two devoted friends. When he
drew up his account with humanity, he found himself passing rich in
love.

His furlough expired, he reported at his depot, and was put on light
duty. He went about it the cheeriest soul alive, and laughed at the
memory of his former miseries as a recruit. This camp life in England,
after the mud and blood of France--like the African gentleman in Mr.
Addison's "Cato," he blessed his stars and thought it luxury. He was
not sorry that the exigencies of service prevented him from being
present at the wedding of Oliver and Peggy. For it was the most sudden
of phenomena, like the fight of two rams, as Shakespeare hath it. In
war-time people marry in haste; and often, dear God, they have not the
leisure to repent. Since the beginning of the war there are many, many
women twice widowed.... But that is by the way. Doggie was grateful to
an ungrateful military system. If he had attended--in the capacity of
best man, so please you--so violent and unreasoning had Oliver's
affection become, Durdlebury would have gaped and whispered behind its
hand