“No.”
He turned her face to his and kissed her.
“Little woman, it seems the only way out. Life’s so queer. When I began this adventure and started that harmless lie, I never thought that it would end like this. I shall have to clean the slate again, and that means England and more trouble. Still, there it is.”
“But you are doing it for me.”
“And for myself, too. Let’s be honest.”
She snuggled close.
“Chéri,” she said, “they cannot do anything very terrible to you, can they?”
Brent looked at the dark water. There was a slight rustling of the leaves of the poplar.
“I suppose I’m a deserter, but desertion when a fellow is due to be demobilized isn’t very serious. Then, I impersonated another man, though Beckett wasn’t hurt by it. He was a lone man. And then, of course, I have upset the records and returns; that’s about the worst crime you can commit in the army.”
He laughed.