Two thousand casualties, they told me, in this
division since December, while the enemy opposite
had suffered probably a good deal more, and all
from this process of keeping the other fellow from
feeling too much at ease.
"I can remember," Williams said as we walked along," when the sight of a dead man stirred me up most unhappily. Now I don't pay much attention. You can't. Understand? You simply can't."
You can't and keep on at war. That explained, too, probably, the astonishing ease with which one learns to like or dislike men at the front. You can form a thorough-going friendship in a day. That's because a man realises his opportunities may be limited.
Other officers greeted us and walked a little with our party, chatting above the noise of guns. In London I had seen soldiers leave Charing Cross with the trench stains still on their uniforms. They had seemed a little mythical. Out here at their daily task they were quite human, as if the whole world were like this, as if it had never been cleaner or kinder, as if it could never change. So we strolled on, answering to that expectancy which lurked in every one's eyes, not sure that beyond each traverse some sudden and monstrous surprise wasn't waiting for us. I was glad to see
