He went to his wife, to speak to her.
“Shall I join up, Winifred?”
She was silent. Her instinct also was dead against it. And yet a certain profound resentment made her answer:
“You have three children dependent on you. I don’t know whether you have thought of that.”
It was still only the third month of the war, and the old pre-war ideas were still alive.
“Of course. But it won’t make much difference to them. I shall be earning a shilling a day, at least.”
“You’d better speak to father, I think,” she replied heavily.
Egbert went to his father-in-law. The elderly man’s heart was full of resentment.
“I should say,” he said rather sourly, “it is the best thing you could do.”
Egbert went and joined up immediately, as a private soldier. He was drafted into the light artillery.