"8.30. It is all over.
"He was too weak to say anything more. But he sent you his love."
Vera said to herself: "He didn't. She made that up."
She hated the Red Cross woman who had been with Lawrence and had seen so much; who had dared to tell her what he meant and to make up messages.
XXIII
Nicholas had applied for a commission, and he had got it, and Frances was glad.
She had been proud of him because he had chosen the ranks instead of the Officers' Training Corps; but she persisted in the belief that, when it came to the trenches, second lieutenants stood a better chance. "For goodness' sake," Nicholas had said, "don't tell her that they're over the parapet first."