“I believe in getting it done.”
“You never will, in that frame of mind.”
“Oh, shan’t I? What would happen if I didn’t see that the right people get to the right place, with the right orders and right supplies, including you and your blessed flagwaggers?”
“Nothing to what will happen if the troops once begin to regard the show as a matter of business! You haven’t got a shako and a big brown horse, but you must play up, as if you had!”
“What rot you talk. I have a tin hat because it will stand shrapnel better than a shako. I have mules because they stand the life better than a horse?”
“Yes, but do you admire your tin hat? Do you really care for mules!”
Something made Dormer say in spite of himself:
“I did once come across a man who cared!”
“There, what did I tell you. He was winning the War!”
(“Whatever did I tell him that for?” Dormer asked himself vexedly. “A nice song he’ll make of it.”) But he only said: