Chapter XVI Summary

Henry's regiment was standing at order waiting for the command to march when he remembered his friend's yellow envelope still in his pocket. He started to say something to his friend but changed his mind, deciding not to deal this little blow of embarrassment. His friend had become much more sensitive lately and he didn't want to wound him in any way. In a way, his decision to not mention the envelope made him feel superior to his friend and gave him an air of patronizing good humor.

Now his thoughts turned to the agonies, mental and physical, of the previous day. He forgave himself for his mental ravings because they were all right for the time. Now out of the heat of battle, he reasoned that only the doomed and the damned could roar at nature. A man with a...