Page:Ruth of the U.S.A. (IA ruthofusa00balm).pdf/207

 was a trifle thinner than before, perhaps; her cool, firm hand clasped his just a bit tensely; her calm, observant eyes were slightly brighter; but she was in complete control of herself, as she always was, quite unconfused—even when two nurses came at the same time for emergency directions—and quite efficient.

After a while she was able to give him a little time alone; and they sat in a tent and talked. Gerry had not seen her or heard from her since the beginning of the battle, and he found her almost overwhelmed with the completeness of the British defeat and the destruction of the Fifth Army. She herself knew and her father, who was dead, had been a close friend of the commanding officers who were held responsible for the disaster; and together with the shock of the defeat, went sympathy for them. They were being removed; and even the English commander-in-chief no longer had supreme command of his own men.

"It's the greatest thing the allies have yet done—one command," Gerry said. "We ought to have had it long ago; if we had, the Boche never would have done what they just have. When you had your own army and your own command, and the French had theirs, you each kept your own reserve; and, of course, Ludendorf knew it. Haig expected an attack upon his part of the front, so he had to keep his reserve to himself on his part of the line to be ready for it; the French looked for an attack on their sectors, so they kept their reserves to themselves; so wherever Ludendorf struck with all his reserves, he knew he'd meet only half of ours and that it would take five days—as it did—for the other half to come up.