Page:War's dark frame (IA warsdarkframe00camp).pdf/54

34 in the navy, and my son is with the high seas fleet. One goes about expecting news like that all the time. I ought not to be glad it was in the Med. iterranean, for there are many women whose fear will grow when they hear that word. Thank you. You understand?"

“I understand."

I descended, thinking:

"A little more than two years ago this woman would not have spoken to a stranger, no matter what her sudden doubt."

So the perpetual strain, its general distribution, draws people to each other for comfort, because so many of them can say:

"I understand."

Any one will tell you that the Zeppelin raids have encouraged such a community of feeling. They have destroyed in every portion of the population of the London and East Coast districts the comfortable aloofness from actual warfare to which English civilians have for centuries been accustomed. The fact that non-combatants have frequently been the only victims has intensified this impression of a common outrage, and a common sympathy.

The Germans, it is fair to assume, haven't bothered about who might be hurt, but, as a matter