Changing Winds: A NovelErvine, St. John G. (St. John Greer)
General
Changing Winds: A Novel
Ervine, St. John G. (St. John Greer)
Fiction
"I wonder if I ought to join," he went on, more to himself than to
Henry. "I've thought and thought about it ... but I can't make up my
mind. I've got a decent connexion at the Bar now, and if I go into the
Army, I shall lose it. The fellows who don't go will get my work. And if
the War lasts as long as Kitchener reckons, I shall be forgotten by the
time I get back ... and I shall have to begin again at an age when most
men have either established themselves or cleared out of the profession
altogether. I want to do what's right, but I can't reconcile my two
duties, Quinny. I've a duty to England, of course, but I think I have a
bigger duty to Rachel and Eleanor. If they'd only conscript us all, this
problem wouldn't arise ... not so acutely anyhow. I suppose the
Government is having a pretty hard time, but they do seem to act the
goat rather! There's a great deal of talk about a man's duty to England,
but very little talk about England's duty to the man. However!..." He
did not finish his sentence, but shrugged his shoulders and looked away.
"I don't feel happy," he went on after a while, "when I see other men
joining up, but I've got to think of Rachel and Eleanor.... When I was
going to meet you, Quinny, I passed a chap on crutches. His leg was
off!... He made me feel damned ashamed. I suppose that's why they let
the wounded go about in uniform so freely; to make you feel ashamed of
yourself. That's what I'm afraid of. I'm afraid I shall rush off to the
recruiting office in a burst of emotion ... and I must think of Rachel
and Eleanor!..."
"I don't see why you should go before I do, Roger," Henry interjected.
"Are you going, Quinny?"
Henry flushed. It hurt him that there should be any question about it.
"Yes," he said.
"I don't think of you as a soldier, Quinny!"
"I don't think of myself as one!" He paused for a moment, and then,
impetuously, he turned to Roger.
"Roger," he said, "do you think I'm ... neurotic? Would you say I'm ...
well, degenerate?"
"Don't be an ass, Quinny!"
"I'm serious, Roger. I'm not just talking about myself, and slopping
over!"
"You're highly strung, of course, but I shouldn't say you were neurotic.
You're healthy enough, aren't you!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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