Tatterdemalion

eeming points, especially when-like May Belinski, as she now preferred to dub herself-they are German; but this woman certainly had music in her soul. She often g

rt, not yet over-which, of course, was precisely what she was doing. One need not forever be stealthily glancing and perpetually moving on in that peculiar way, which, while it satisfied the police and Mrs. Grundy, must not quite deceive others as to her business in life. She had only "been at it" long enough to have acquired a nervous dread of almost

ves. Now and again she would move up as far as the posters outside the Hall, scrutinising them as if interested in the future, then stroll back again. In her wo

ed her, speaking German, and she was overwhelmed by a rush of nostalgia. On this moonlight night by the banks of the Rhine-whence she came-the orchards would be heavy with apples; there would be murmurs, and sweet scents; the old castle would stand out clear, high over the woods and the chalky-white river. There would be singing far away, and the churning of a distant steamer's screw; and perhaps on the water a log raft still drifting down in the blue light. There would be German voices talking. And suddenly tears oozed up in her eyes, and crept down through

nd before the war had actually believed in music, art, and all that sort of thing. With a month's leave before him, he could afford to feel that life was extraordinarily joyful, his own experiences particularly wonderful; and, coming out into the moonlight, he had taken what can only be described as a great gulp of it, for he was a young man with a sense of beauty. When one has been long in the trenches, lain out wounded in a shell-hole twenty-four hours, and spent three months in hospit

the eyelids-told him that he was making what he would have called "a blooming error," unless h

s the

fluttered sideways

beautiful even

rtain type" should perceive what he himself had jus

eer

ftly: "Cheer up! You ar

mehow honest; her tear-streaked fac

alk a bit, and

range-glowing lamps, and here and there the glint of some blue or violet light. He found it quee

his? Isn't it an awfull

a queer soft emphasis. "You are

of hospita

e misery is because of t

her attentive

nationalit

osh

ever met a R

oked at him, then very quick

bad as the

ellow-gloved hand

mile was like her speech, slow, confiding-"you stopped because I was sad, others stop

George! they're simply splendid-officers and men, every blessed soul. There's never been

-grey eyes on hi

at that. You see in them what

got wounded, there wasn't a single man in my regiment who wasn't an absolute

nd she answered in a queer voice: "It i

, I kno

a mean man. How

an really-they simp

baby-a good bab

wned; but was at once touched by the disconcertion

id cli

r it. It is so good

se, and he s

y? Haven't you any

added: "The town is so beeg!

es

-I love

e all Rus

, and seemed to struggle to kee

lways when I

you so on

one shilling now

him-she had a way of making him fee

to a narrow square,

I lif," she s

st of the apartment. As soon as the door was shut she put up her face and kissed him-evidently formula. What a room! Its green and beetroot colouring and the prevalence of cheap plush disagreeably affected him. Everything in it had that callous look of rooms which seem to be saying to their occupants:

e went towards the gas

he threw up the window. The girl had come obediently from the hearth, and sat down opposite him, leaning her arm on the window-sill and her chin on her hand. The moonlight cau

our name?

myself that. It's n

stful little par

n to be, don

ou're bound to th

e. I am dreadfully nervous now; I am not trusting any

lau

ppens to be hand to hand; I

very glad if you

boat, so far as that's concerned. We're not gla

ul. I expect I haf

get any n

them, I suppose, now. The war it breaks and breaks, it breaks hearts." Her little teeth fastened again on her lower lip in that sort of pretty snarl. "Do you know what I

trenches; but one's asham

s there. What is it like for me here, do you think, where everybody ha

eathing painful to listen to. He leaned forward

n a smothe

me for so long! I will tell you the trut

is thought was: "Does she really think

girl, w

search right into h

i-ice boy. I am so glad I met you. You see the good in people, don't you? That is th

id, s

cynic!" Then thought: "Of

ot a cyneec? I should drown myself to-morrow. Perhaps

now

d forward

boy-you haf never be

e not a r

ook me to some of your good people, and said: 'Here is a little German girl that has no work, and no money, and n

, he would swear! And yet-! He heard their voices, frank and clear; and

rd her say, and c

there ar

des, I don't want to be good any more-I am not a humbug-I hav

cloud. Out there at the front, over here in hospital, life had been seeming so-as it were-heroic; and yet it held such mean and murky depths as well! The voices of his men, whom he had come to love like brothers, crude burring voices, cheery in trouble, making nothing of it; the voices of doctors and nurses, patient, quiet, reassuring voices; even his own voice, infected by it all, kept sounding in his ears. All won

pps burned-what a horrible death! And all the peopl

ound and sa

I don't

e? I was reading to them about Christ and love. I believed all those things. Now I believe not'ing at all-no one who is not a fool or a liar can believe. I would like to work in a hospital; I would like to go and help poor boys like you. Because I am a German they would throw me out a hundred times, even if I was good. It is the same in Germany and France and Russia, everywhere. But do you think I will believe in love and Christ and a God and all that?-not I! I think we are animals-that's all! Oh! yes-you fancy it is because my life has spoiled me. It is not t

e was afraid she had driven him away. She said coaxingly: "Don't mind me talking, ni-ic

utte

I'm not obliged to be

rk dress and white face just touched by the slanting moon

it is all 'Comrade'! and braveness out there at the front, and people don't think of themselves. Well, I don't think of myself veree much. What does it matter-I am lost now, anyway; but I think of my people at home, ho

y still, bit

each, and soon it is over. W

d rese

e's more

r is fought for the future; you are giving

l we win," he said

es think that if they win the world will be better. But

and caught up his cap; b

m all-animals-animals-animals! Ah! Don

tunic pocket, put them on th

d-ni

d plain

going? Don't you

I like

use I am Ge

N

y won't

se you upset me so"; but he

ou kees

t as he took them away she threw her head bac

n suddenly

n't want to

lk to me a little, then. No one talks to me. I would much rat

relief, or was

ood

om the

I thin

hey ver

were quite gla

here as there; in Rooshia too, and France, everywhere; and the trees will look the same as here, and people wil

ve till then. And when a whole lot of you feel like that-and are ready to give their lives for each other, i

ou wounded,

ound-four machine-gun bul

d you to attack?" No, he had not been frighten

hat morning. They got me much

ared a

lau

and giving me a squeeze of lemon. If you knew my Colonel you'd still believe in things. There is something, y

with bistre, had in the moonlight a most

in nothing. My

you know, or you wouldn't hav

ver talking, for fear I will be known for a German. Soon I shall take to drinking, then I shall be 'Kaput' very quick. You see, I am practical, I se

u were pitying your people

hat's all; I am different from your Englishwomen. I see what I am doing;

r heart

e. But all that about love is 'umbu

quaint and decoratively useless out in the narrow square, where emptiness and silence reigned. He looked around into her face-in spite of bistre and powder, and the faint rouging on her lips, it had a queer, unholy, touching beauty. And he had suddenly the strangest feeling, as if they stood there-the two of them-proving that kindness and human fellowship were stronger than lust, stronger than hate; proving it against meanness and brutality, and the sudden shouting of newspaper boys in some neighbouring street. Their cries, passionately vehement, clashed into each other, and obscured the words-what was it they were calling? His head went up to listen; he felt her hand rigid within his arm-she too was listening. The cries came nearer, hoarser, more shrill and clamorous; the empty moonlight seemed of a sudden crowde

o the floor, and turned her back to him. He stood looking at her leaning against the plush-covered table which smelled of dust; her h

of a pattern made by fragments of the torn-up notes, staring out into the moonlight, seeing, not this hated room and the hated square outside, but a German orchard, and herself, a little girl, plucking

s of fallen leaves, and dabbling in it with her fingers, while the tears ran down her cheeks. For her country she had torn them, her country in defeat! She, who had just one shilling in th

9