Page:Herbert Jenkins - The Rain Girl.djvu/58

 on leave I noticed it particularly. I would go to a restaurant, hear the talk and laughter, listen to the music; yet twenty-four hours previously I—oh! it was all wrong, and is wrong, and will continue to be wrong," he broke off irritably.

"I know," said Tallis quietly.

"You were out there?" queried Beresford.

"For more than a couple of years, one part of the time at an advanced dressing-station."

"So you know," said Beresford with interest.

Tallis nodded, puffing methodically at his pipe.

"The strange thing is that some knew what was the matter with them, others were just like animals who were ill and couldn't understand it. You've seen a dog look up at you as if enquiring why it can't enjoy things as it used to?"

Tallis nodded again.

"Well, that's what some of the men reminded me of," continued Beresford, "especially those who had come back from leave. God!" he exclaimed, "it was an unequal distribution of the world's responsibilities."

For some time they smoked in silence. Presently the doctor bent towards the grate and knocked the ashes out of his pipe.

"Talking of responsibilities," he said casually, "reminds me of my own. What's the next move after convalescence?"

"The next move?"

"You'd better try Folkestone."