Page:The ways of war - Kettle - 1917.pdf/74

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"the only bothersome thing about walking was that the miles began at the wrong end")—"the old woman when she comes to that road will find the miles beginning at the right end. We shall all bid our first real adieu to those brother-jesters of ours. Time and Space: and though the handkerchiefs flutter, no lack of courage will have power to cheat or defeat us. 'However amusing the comedy may have been,' wrote Pascal, 'there is always blood in the fifth act. They scatter a little dust in your face; and then all is over, for ever.' Blood there may be, but blood does not necessarily mean tragedy. The wisdom of humility bids us pray that in that fifth act we may have good lines and a timely exit; but, fine or feeble, there is comfort in breaking the parting word into its two significant halves, à Dieu. Since life has been a constant slipping from one good-bye to another, why should we fear that sole good-bye which promises to cancel all its forerunners?"

Could one meet death in a nobler way? He had his last lines at Ginchy, and "his fine word and incomparable gesture." And now Picardy of the waving poplars—Picardy that my student days had garlanded with many memories, that shone in recollection with many friendships, now by the strange way of destiny holds my husband's grave. But he sleeps well in his beloved France, wearing the green emblem of his Motherland with his fallen comrades of the "Irish Brigade." As his