"The country is not a subject for discussion."
"Is it an article of faith?"
"You know I do not believe in religions," protested Daniel. "I have no faith in any of them. But that is the very reason. What should we have left on earth if it were not for our country?"
"I think that there are many great and beautiful things in the world, and Country is only one of them; but I am not discussing the love, but the way of loving."
"There is only one," said Daniel.
"And what is that?"
"We must obey."
"The ancient symbol, Love with bandaged eyes; I only want to open them."
"No, no, let us alone. It is hard enough already. Don't make it any worse for us." In a few phrases, temperate, yet broken by emotion, Daniel brought up the terrible picture of the weeks that he had spent in the trenches; the disgust and the horror of what he had borne himself, the suffering he had seen in others, had inflicted on them.
"But, my dear fellow, if you see this shameful thing, why not try to prevent it?"