We had got out of the range of the guns and the surgeons had done their business with bandages and splints. They had taken Reggie first, then Jimmy.
And so, lying beside Reggie, on his own stretcher and in his own ambulance, he was brought back to Ghent.
The military hospitals were full, so we took them to the Convent de Saint
Pierre. And I went over to the Hôtel de la Poste to fetch Viola.
I don't know what I said to her. I think I must have done what Jimmy told me and said they were all right. She never said a word till we got to the Convent. (She told me afterwards that when she saw me coming in alone she had been sure that Jimmy was killed. She didn't know about Reggie yet, you see.)
This part of it is all confused and horrible.
We had to wait before we could see our surgeons at the Convent. The nuns took us into a little parlour and left us there.
And I told her then what had happened. I can see her sitting in the nuns' parlour, looking out of the window as I told her; looking as if she wasn't listening. And I can hear my own voice. It sounded strange and affected, as if I had made it all up and didn't believe what I was telling her.
"He saved Reggie's life—do you see? at the risk of his own.
"At—the risk—of his own."
And still she looked as if she wasn't listening. It didn't sound as if it had really happened.