CHAPTER XXII
BACK TO TURKEY
Yet after I had come to believe that
these conclusions of mine were the
right ones—and at the present moment
I still believe them to be so—I did not rise,
pack my trunk and return to my home. On
the contrary, disillusioned though I was, I
meant to stay in America. My little self felt
pledged to the onward fight, into which evolution
has plunged us. My generation belongs to that
advance guard which will live to see the fight
ended in America, and I must be present, after
the great victory is won, to see how we shall
face the reconstruction period. This was the
reason why, when my mother, about to undergo
a serious operation, sent for me to be with her,
I bought my return ticket before leaving America,
and kept it always with me—ready for use at a
moment's notice.
The love of our native land forms an indelible part of our souls. A mad joy possessed me all the way from New York to Genoa; a delirium from Genoa to the Dardanelles; and from the straits to the harbour I was speechless with
