“Your devoted
“Daddy.”

He was alone in his third-class compartment, and, leaning forward, watched the ruined Abbey across the river till it was out of sight.  Those old monks had lived in an age surely not so sad as this.  They must have had peaceful lives, remote down here, in days when the Church was great and lovely, and men laid down their lives for their belief in her, and built everlasting fanes to the glory of God!  What a change to this age of rush and hurry, of science, trade, material profit, and this terrible war!  He tried to read his paper, but it was full of horrors and hate.  ‘When will it end?’ he thought.  And the train with its rhythmic jolting seemed grinding out the answer:  “Never—­never!”

At Chepstow a soldier got in, followed by a woman with a very flushed face and curious, swimmy eyes; her hair was in disorder, and her lip bleeding, as if she had bitten it through.  The soldier, too, looked strained and desperate.  They sat down, far apart, on the seat opposite.  Pierson, feeling that he was in their way, tried to hide himself behind his paper; when he looked again, the soldier had taken off his tunic and cap and was leaning out of the window.  The woman, on the seat’s edge, sniffing and wiping her face, met his glance with resentful eyes, then, getting up, she pulled the man’s sleeve.

“Sit dahn; don’t ‘ang out o’ there.”

The soldier flung himself back on the seat and looked at Pierson.

“The wife an’ me’s ’ad a bit of a row,” he said companionably.  “Gits on me nerves; I’m not used to it.  She was in a raid, and ’er nerves are all gone funny; ain’t they, old girl?  Makes me feel me ’ead.  I’ve been wounded there, you know; can’t stand much now.  I might do somethin’ if she was to go on like this for long.”

Pierson looked at the woman, but her eyes still met his resentfully.  The soldier held out a packet of cigarettes.  “Take one,” he said.  Pierson took one and, feeling that the soldier wanted him to speak, murmured:  “We all have these troubles with those we’re fond of; the fonder we are of people, the more we feel them, don’t we?  I had one with my daughter last night.”

“Ah!” said the soldier; “that’s right.  The wife and me’ll make it up.  ’Ere, come orf it, old girl.”

From behind his paper he soon became conscious of the sounds of reconciliation—­reproaches because someone had been offered a drink, kisses mixed with mild slappings, and abuse.  When they got out at Bristol the soldier shook his hand warmly, but the woman still gave him her resentful stare, and he thought dreamily:  ’The war!  How it affects everyone!’ His carriage was invaded by a swarm of soldiers, and the rest of the journey was passed in making himself small.  When at last he reached home, Gratian met him in the hall.

“Just the same.  The doctor says we shall know in a few hours now.  How sweet of you to come!  You must be tired, in this heat.  It was dreadful to spoil your holiday.”