Page:Ballads of a Bohemian.djvu/218

216 The reeking horror of it all I knew: I flung myself into the furnace there; I faced the flame that scorched me with its glare; I drank unto the dregs the devil’s brew– Look at me now–for you and you and you.…)

I’m thinking of the time we said good-by: We took our dinner in Duval’s that night, Just little Jacqueline, Lucette and I; We tried our very utmost to be bright. We laughed. And yet our eyes, they weren’t gay. I sought all kinds of cheering things to say. “Don’t grieve,” I told them. “Soon the time will pass; My next permission will come quickly round; We’ll all meet at the Gare du Montparnasse; Three times I’ve come already, safe and sound.” (But oh, I thought. It’s harder every time, After a home that seems like Paradise, To go back to the vermin and the slime, The weariness, the want, the sacrifice. “Pray God,” I said, “the war may soon be done, But no, oh never, never till we've won!”)

Then to the station quietly we walked; I had my rifle and my haversack, My heavy boots, my blankets on my back; And though it hurt us, cheerfully we talked. We chatted bravely at the platform gate. I watched the clock. My train must go at eight. One minute to the hour… we kissed good-by,