"I don't think I can get on without Billy afterwards, Mrs. Burton. No one else has realized how wonderful he was, what beautiful things he was planning to do with his life." Vera was shivering so Mrs. Burton could only hold her more closely.
"I know, dear, and yet how could one do more than Billy has done? Greater love hath no man than this that he lay down his life for his friend. Billy's friends, remember, were never merely the few people he knew; his idea of friendship was a bigger thing than ours."
"Billy wishes to speak to you, Tante, and to Vera," Peggy said at this instant appearing at the open door. "Don't be unhappy at seeing him. He is not frightened and yet he understands perfectly he has only a little while."
Billy was lying on a cot with a nurse on one side of him and his mother on the other, but, except for this, looking much as he usually did.
His face was paler and the blue eyes even wider open, yet for once in his life they seemed to have lost their questioning look.
"I promised you not to get into mischief, Tante. Well, this is the last time; at least, I suppose it is my last. But after all one does not know; there may be other chances over there."
Billy was trying to smile and Mrs. Burton leaned over and kissed him.
"I know there will be, Billy, and you will take them as gallantly as you have done this one. Don't worry, old chap, I'll look after your mother and Peggy."
Then she turned away.
Vera had kneeled down and was hiding her face in the bed clothes.