In the deep cut beyond the station it seemed as if the whole town were come out to sit on the banks and just look.
They were like children, I thought, not understanding, helpless, waiting for something that was going to happen.
London, September
The night Ian went out was pretty bad. There were several other officers with him, and their wives and mothers and sisters and children all came to see them off.
Every one knew quite well what it meant, and every one pretended not to know.
I had come to feel, like the rest of them, that one has simply got to pretend.
We all pretended as hard as we could that it was splendid.
There was a woman on the platform who must have been crazy, I think.
She did not belong to any one going out. She was one of those dreadful things you see in London, with a big hat heaped with feathers, and draggled tails of hair. I think she had a red dress.