And isn't that the truth I'm after talking, Mother o' mine?"
"I never knew more than one O'Connor who told the truth yet," said the lady, "and that's yourself, my dear. And it's a frightening way you have with it that would scare the devil out of his skin."
They were pleasant hours with Eileen, and when she went away from Charing Cross one morning with Dr. Small, five hospital nurses and two Americans of the Red Cross, I wished with all my heart that Wickham Brand had asked her, and not Elsa von Kreuzenach, to be his wife. That was an idle wish, for the next morning Brand and I crossed over to France, and on the way to Paris my friend told me that the thought of meeting Elsa after those months of separation excited him so that each minute seemed an hour. And as he told me that he lit a cigarette, and I saw that his hand was trembling, because of this nervous strain.
