I guessed their destination. "In there," I nodded, pointing through a closed glass door, and the sergeant marched his men in and beyond the door.
An officer had been brought back under arrest; I had seen him pass with his escort. The rumour at tea had been that he had extended his two days' leave into three weeks.
The V.A.D. looked at me questioningly but she didn't dare, and I couldn't bear, to start any elucidations on the subject.
I couldn't think; she worried me. Her odds and ends of conversation pecked at me like a small bird. She told me a riddle which filled me with nausea, and finally a limerick which I had heard three times in the Mess.
I left her and went into the bunk.
Here the new Sister had installed herself, gentle and pink and full of quiet murmurs.
The rain, half snow, half sleet, dabbled against the window-pane, and I lifted the blind to watch the flakes stick and melt on the glass.
The V.A.D., her trays finished, appeared in the doorway. The little room seemed full of people.
"There's a concert," I said, looking at the V.A.D. with distaste.