"Ern's my man, Joe," she repeated. "I need him; and none other."
Baffled for the moment, her assailant paused in his assault.
"And has Ern got a purpose in his life?"
"He has now."
"What's that then?"
"What you said at the Citadel that Sunday—the war, and what it stands for."
"The war won't last for ever. What when that's over?"
"He'll come back a made man."
He regarded her with a kind of sardonic pity.
"He'll never coom back—never."