But John wouldn't hear of it. Ghent wouldn't fall.
"It won't fall because it isn't a fortified city," she objected. "But it'll surrender. It'll have to."
"It won't. If the Germans come anywhere near we shall drive them back."
"They are near. They're all round in a ring with only a little narrow opening up there. And the ring's getting closer."
"It's easier to push back a narrow ring than a wide one."
"It's easier to break through a thin ring than a thick one, and who's going to push?"
"We are. The British. We'll come pouring in, hundreds of thousands of us, through that little narrow opening up there."
"If we only would—"
"Of course we shall. If I thought we wouldn't, if I thought we were going to let the Belgians down, if we betrayed them—My God! I'd kill myself…. No. No, I wouldn't. That wouldn't hurt enough. I'd give up my damned country and be a naturalized Belgian. Why, they trust us. They trust us to save Antwerp."
"If we don't, that wouldn't be betrayal."