But how can I get
accustomed to the thought that perhaps I shan't see Hermann again? I
must get accustomed to it: I've got to live with it, and not quarrel
with it."
He took up her hand, enclosing it in his.
"But, one doesn't quarrel with the big things of life," he said. "Isn't
it so? We haven't any quarrel with things like death and duty. Dear me,
I'm afraid I'm preaching."
"Preach, then," she said.
"Well, it's just that. We don't quarrel with them: they manage
themselves. Hermann's going managed itself. It had to be."
Her voice quivered as she spoke now.
"Are you going?" she asked. "Will that have to be?"
Michael looked at her a moment with infinite tenderness.
"Oh, my dear, of course it will," he said. "Of course, one doesn't know
yet what the War Office will do about the Army. I suppose it's possible
that they will send troops to France. All that concerns me is that I
shall rejoin again if they call up the Reserves."
"And they will?"
"Yes, I should think that is inevitable. And you know there's something
big about it. I'm not warlike, you know, but I could not fail to be a
soldier under these new conditions, any more than I could continue being
a soldier when all it meant was to be ornamental.
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