Peter, in the street, contemplated many things, including suicide.  If Colonel Chichester had been in Rouen he would have gone there; as it was, he did not dare to face that unknown any more than this other.  In the end he set out slowly for H.Q., was saluted by the sentry under the flag, climbed up to a corridor with many strangely labelled doors, and finally entered the right one, to find himself in a big room in which half a dozen men in uniform were engaged at as many desks with orderlies moving between them.  A kind of counter barred his farther passage.  He stood at it forlornly for a few minutes.

At last an orderly came to him, and he shortly explained his presence and handed in the much-blued order.  The man listened in silence, asked him to wait a moment, and departed.  Peter leaned on the counter and tried to look indifferent.  With a detached air he studied the Kirschner girls on the walls.  These added a certain air to the otherwise forlorn place, but when, a little later, W.A.A.C.’s were installed, a paternal Government ordered their removal.  But that then mattered no longer to Peter.

At the last the orderly came back.  “Will you please follow me, sir?” he said.

Peter was led round the barrier like a sheep to execution, and in at a small door.  He espied a General Officer at a desk by the window, telephone receiver in one hand, the fateful order in the other.  He saluted.  The other nodded.  Peter waited.

“Ah, yes!  D.A.Q.M.G. speaking.  That 10th Group Headquarters?  Oh yes; good-morning, Mallony.  About Captain Graham’s movement order.  When was this order applied for at your end?...  What?  Eighteenth?  Humph!  What time did your office receive it?...  Eh?  Ten a.m.?  Then, sir, I should like to know what it was doing in your office till six p.m.  This officer did not receive it till six-thirty.  What?  He was out?  Yes, very likely, but it reached his mess at six-thirty:  it is so endorsed....  Colonel Lear has had the matter under consideration?  Good.  Kindly ask Colonel Lear to come to the telephone.”

He leaned back, and glanced up at Graham, taking him in with a grave smile.  “I understand you waited ten days for this, Captain Graham,” he said.  “It’s disgraceful that it should happen.  I am glad to have had an instance brought before me, as we have had too many cases of this sort of thing lately....”  He broke off.  “Yes?  Colonel Lear?  Ah, good-morning, Colonel Lear.  This case of the movement order of Captain Graham has just been brought to me.  This officer was kept waiting ten days for his order, and then given an impossibly short time to report.  Well, it won’t do, Colonel.  There must be something very wrong in your orderly-room; kindly see to it.  Chaplains have other things to do than sit around in camps waiting the convenience of Group Headquarters.  The application for this order reached us on the 27th, and was sent off early next morning, in ample time for the officer to travel.  I am very displeased about it.  You will kindly apply at once for a fresh order, and see that it is in Captain Graham’s hands at least six hours before he must report.  That is all.  Good-morning.”