I can stand two days without shewing it much: but no man can stand three days; I’m as nervous as a mouse. [He sits down on the ottoman, and takes his head in his hands]. Would you like to see me cry ?

RAINA [alarmed] No.

THE MAN. If you would, all you have to do is to scold me just as if I were a little boy and you my nurse. If I were in camp now, theyd play all sorts of tricks on me.

RAINA [a little moved] I’m sorry. I wont scold you. [Touched by the sympathy in her tone, he raises his head and looks gratefully at her: she immediately draws back and says stiffly] You must excuse me: our soldiers are not like that. [She moves away from the ottoman].

THE MAN. Oh yes they are. There are only two sorts of soldiers: old ones and young ones. Ive served fourteen years: half of your fellows never smelt powder before. Why, how is it that youve just beaten us ? Sheer ignorance of the art of war, nothing else. [Indignantly] I never saw anything so unprofessional.

RAINA [ironically] Oh! was it unprofessional to beat you ?

THE MAN. Well, come! is it professional to throw a regiment of cavalry on a battery of machine guns, with the dead certainty that if the guns go off not a horse or man will ever get within fifty yards of the fire ? I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw it.

RAINA [eagerly turning to him, as all her enthusiasm and her dreams of glory rush back on her] Did you see the great cavalry charge ? Oh, tell me about it. Describe it to me.

THE MAN. You never saw a cavalry charge, did you ?

RAINA. How could I ?

THE MAN. Ah, perhaps not. No: of course not! Well, it’s a funny sight. It’s like slinging a handful of peas against a window pane: first one comes; then two or three close behind him; and then all the rest in a lump.

RAINA [her eyes dilating as she raises her clasped hands ecstatically] Yes, first One! the bravest of the brave!

THE MAN [prosaically] Hm! you should see the poor devil pulling at his horse.

RAINA. Why should he pull at his horse ?

THE MAN [impatient of so stupid a question] It’s running away with him, of course: do you suppose the fellow wants to get there before the others and be killed ? Then they all come. You can tell the young ones by their wildness and their slashing. The old ones come bunched up under the number one guard: they know that theyre mere projectiles, and that it’s no use trying to fight. The wounds are mostly broken knees, from the horses cannoning together.

RAINA. Ugh! But I dont believe the first man is a coward. I know he is a hero!

THE MAN [goodhumoredly] Thats what youd have said if youd seen the first man in the charge today.

RAINA [breathless, forgiving him everything] Ah, I knew it! Tell me. Tell me about him.

THE MAN. He did it like an operatic tenor. A regular handsome fellow, with flashing eyes and lovely moustache, shouting his war-cry and charging like Don Quixote at the windmills. We did laugh.

RAINA.