I woke that afternoon and of course wondered where I was.  Everything seemed to be aching and throbbing at once.  I tried to move, but I felt as if I was clamped to the bed.  “This is terrible,” I thought, “I must be having a nightmare.”  Then I saw the cradle covering my legs.  “What could it be?” I wondered, and then in a flash the scenes of that morning (or was it a week ago?) came back to me.  I wondered if my back was all right and felt carefully down the side.  No, there was no bandage, and I sighed with relief, though it ached like fury.  I could feel the top of the wooden splints on the one leg but nothing but bandages on the other.

My head had been sewn up, also my lip, and a nice tight bandage replaced the hanky.

It was thumping wildly and presently an unseen figure gave me something very cool to sip out of a feeding mug.  Things straightened out a bit after that, and I saw there were quantities of flowers in the room, jugfuls in fact, which had been sent to cheer me along.  Then something in my leg, the one that was hurting most, gave a fearful tug and a jump and I drew in my breath with a sobbing gasp.  What could it be?  It felt just as if someone had tugged it on purpose, and it took ages to settle down again.  I looked mutely at my nurse for an explanation, and she put a cool hand on mine.

It was the severed nerve, and I learnt to dread those involuntary jumps that came so suddenly from nowhere and seized one like a deadly cramp.

Everything, including my back, was one vast ache punctuated by those appalling nerve jumps that set every other one in my body tingling.

How I longed to turn on my side, but that was a luxury denied me for weeks.

My friend Eva had heard the cheerful news when she returned from Boulogne, where she had been all day, and she and Lowson were allowed to come and see me for a few minutes.

“I’ve broken both legs,” I stated.  “Isn’t it the limit?  They don’t half hurt.”  They nodded sympathetically, not daring to give me a hint of the real state of affairs.

“Captain C. says I’ll be able to ride again though,” I added, and once more they nodded.

“I told you what would happen when I lost that charm,” I said to Eva.

I asked after “Little Willie,” and heard his remains had been towed to camp, though being a Hun he would of course manage to escape somehow!

I had an adorable V.A.D. to look after me.  The best I ever want to have.  She seemed to know exactly what I wanted without being told.  I felt almost too tired to speak, and in any case it’s not easy with stitches in your mouth.

The Padre, not my friend of the entrance hall I was glad to note, came to see me and I had a Communion Service all to myself, as they thought I might possibly die in the night.