This time the sleeper saw him.
"Already back? Go back to bed. It is too early."
"Is it really so early?"
Her sisterly tenderness divined that he had something to tell her,
something important, and that it would be necessary to help him to tell
it. "Come in," she said.
He opened the blinds and sat down at the foot of the bed.
"What scouting have you done this morning?"
But he was following his own thoughts: "The men had warned me that under
those circumstances one receives a very disagreeable impression."
"Under what circumstances?"
"When one goes up again after having been wounded, and meets a Boche. As
long as you have not been wounded you think nothing can happen to you.
When I saw that Boche this morning I felt something quite new. Then...."
He stopped and laughed, as if he had played some schoolboy joke.
"Then, what did you do?"
"Well, I made up my mind to submit to his shots. Calmly."
"Without replying?"
"Surely: I ordered myself not to shoot. That is the way one masters
one's nerves, little sister. Mine are entirely mastered: I am now
absolutely in control.
Pages:
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162