"Enlist!" she said.
"Yes. Silly ass not to ask for a commission!" said Jimphy.
Boltt burbled about the priceless privilege of youth. If only he were a youngster once again!...
They drank their tea, while Jimphy discoursed on the war. Henry had entered Cecily's house with a feeling of alarm, wondering whether she would be friendly to him, wondering whether he would be able to look into her eyes and not care ... and now he knew that he did not care. There was something incredibly unfeeling and trivial about Cecily, something ... vulgar. While the world was still reeling from the shock of the War, she was arranging to be photographed with mittens that she had not made and could not make. The portrait would be reproduced in the Daily Reflexion under the title of "Lady Cecily Jayne Does Her Bit." ... But she was beautiful, undeniably she was beautiful. As he looked at her, she raised her eyes, conscious perhaps of his stare, and smiled at him....
"She'd smile at anybody," he said to himself. "If she had any feeling at all for me, she'd be angry with me!"
She came to him. "I wish you'd tell Gilbert to come and see me," she said, sitting down beside him.
"Very well," he answered, "I will!"
"I'm sure he'll look awfully nice in khaki. And I should love to see him saluting Jimphy. He'll have to do that, you know, if he's a private...."
8
He got away as soon as he could decently do so, and went back to Bloomsbury. "That isn't England," he told himself, "that mitten-making, posturing crew!" and he remembered the great queues of men, standing outside Scotland Yard, struggling to get into the Army, and suffering much discomfort in the effort.