'But tell me why we are not worthy of victory, now,' I urged.
CHAPTER XIV
EDGECUMBE'S LOGIC
He was silent for a few seconds, and then went on quietly: 'You will forgive me, sir, if I seem assertive, but I look on you as my friend—and—and you know all about me—that I know myself. As I have said before, I naturally look at things differently from others. I have to be always beginning de novo. But tell me, sir, what do you think are the greatest curses in the British Army? What ruins most of our soldiers, body and soul?'
I hesitated a second, and then replied, 'Drink and—and impurity.'
'Exactly; and how much is the latter owing to the former?'
'A great deal, I dare say.'
'Just so. Now go a step further. Did not one of England's most prominent statesmen say that he feared drink more than he feared the Germans?'
'That was a rhetorical flourish,' I laughed.
'No, it was a sober considered statement. Now think. Before I—I—that is before God became real to me, I looked at this question from the standpoint of policy. I considered the whole thing in the light of the fact that it was sapping our strength, wasting our manhood. But I have had to go deeper, and now I see——great God, man, it's ghastly! positively ghastly!'