Mr. Standfast | Page 7

and the nightmarish
walls. But the food was magnificent. It was the best dinner I had eaten
since 1914.
'Tell me, Mr Brand,' said Miss Doria, her long white face propped on a
much-beringed hand. 'You are one of us? You are in revolt against this
crazy war?'
'Why, yes,' I said, remembering my part. 'I think a little common-sense
would settle it right away.'
'With a little common-sense it would never have started,' said Mr
Wake.
'Launcelot's a C.O., you know,' said Miss Doria.
I did not know, for he did not look any kind of soldier... I was just
about to ask him what he commanded, when I remembered that the
letters stood also for 'Conscientious Objector,' and stopped in time.
At that moment someone slipped into the vacant seat on my right hand.
I turned and saw the V.A.D. girl who had brought tea to Blaikie that
afternoon at the hospital.
'He was exempted by his Department,' the lady went on, 'for he's a Civil
Servant, and so he never had a chance of testifying in court, but no one
has done better work for our cause. He is on the committee of the
L.D.A., and questions have been asked about him in Parliament.'
The man was not quite comfortable at this biography. He glanced

nervously at me and was going to begin some kind of explanation,
when Miss Doria cut him short. 'Remember our rule, Launcelot. No
turgid war controversy within these walls.'
I agreed with her. The war had seemed closely knit to the Summer
landscape for all its peace, and to the noble old chambers of the Manor.
But in that demented modish dining-room it was shriekingly
incongruous.
Then they spoke of other things. Mostly of pictures or common friends,
and a little of books. They paid no heed to me, which was fortunate, for
I know nothing about these matters and didn't understand half the
language. But once Miss Doria tried to bring me in. They were talking
about some Russian novel--a name like Leprous Souls--and she asked
me if I had read it. By a curious chance I had. It had drifted somehow
into our dug-out on the Scarpe, and after we had all stuck in the second
chapter it had disappeared in the mud to which it naturally belonged.
The lady praised its 'poignancy' and 'grave beauty'. I assented and
congratulated myself on my second escape--for if the question had been
put to me I should have described it as God-forgotten twaddle.
I turned to the girl, who welcomed me with a smile. I had thought her
pretty in her V.A.D. dress, but now, in a filmy black gown and with her
hair no longer hidden by a cap, she was the most ravishing thing you
ever saw. And I observed something else. There was more than good
looks in her young face. Her broad, low brow and her laughing eyes
were amazingly intelligent. She had an uncanny power of making her
eyes go suddenly grave and deep, like a glittering river narrowing into a
pool.
'We shall never be introduced,' she said, 'so let me reveal myself. I'm
Mary Lamington and these are my aunts... Did you really like Leprous
Souls?'
It was easy enough to talk to her. And oddly enough her mere presence
took away the oppression I had felt in that room. For she belonged to
the out-of-doors and to the old house and to the world at large. She
belonged to the war, and to that happier world beyond it--a world

which must be won by going through the struggle and not by shirking it,
like those two silly ladies.
I could see Wake's eyes often on the girl, while he boomed and
oraculated and the Misses Wymondham prattled. Presently the
conversation seemed to leave the flowery paths of art and to verge
perilously near forbidden topics. He began to abuse our generals in the
field. I could not choose but listen. Miss Lamington's brows were
slightly bent, as if in disapproval, and my own temper began to rise.
He had every kind of idiotic criticism--incompetence, faint- heartedness,
corruption. Where he got the stuff I can't imagine, for the most
grousing Tommy, with his leave stopped, never put together such
balderdash. Worst of all he asked me to agree with him.
It took all my sense of discipline. 'I don't know much about the subject,'
I said, 'but out in South Africa I did hear that the British leading was
the weak point. I expect there's a good deal in what you say.'
It may have been fancy, but the girl at my side seemed to whisper 'Well
done!'
Wake and I did not remain long behind before joining the ladies; I
purposely cut it short, for I