YOUNG OFF. Oh, not a bit; you're quite out! I assure you when we made the attack where I got wounded there wasn't a single man in my regiment who wasn't an absolute hero. The way they went in--never thinking of themselves--it was simply ripping. GIRL. [In a queer voice] It is the same too, perhaps, with--the enemy. YOUNG OFF. Oh, yes! I know that. GIRL. Ah! You are not a mean man. How I hate mean men! YOUNG OFF. Oh! they're not mean really--they simply don't understand. GIRL. Oh! You are a babee--a good babee aren't you? [The YOUNG OFFICER doesn't like this, and frowns. The GIRL looks a little scared.] GIRL. [Clingingly] But I li-ke you for it. It is so good to find a ni-ice man. YOUNG OFF. [Abruptly] About being lonely? Haven't you any Russian friends? GIRL. [Blankly] Rooshian? No. [Quickly] The town is so beeg. Were you at the concert before you spoke to me? YOUNG OFF. Yes. GIRL. I too. I lofe music. YOUNG OFF. I suppose all Russians do. GIRL. [With another quick look tat him] I go there always when I haf the money. YOUNG OFF. What! Are you as badly on the rocks as that? GIRL. Well, I haf just one shilling now! [She laughs bitterly. The laugh upsets him; he sits on the window-sill, and leans forward towards her.] YOUNG OFF. I say, what's your name? GIRL. May. Well, I call myself that. It is no good asking yours. YOUNG OFF. [With a laugh] You're a distrustful little soul; aren't you? GIRL. I haf reason to be, don't you think? YOUNG OFF. Yes. I suppose you're bound to think us all brutes. GIRL. [Sitting on a chair close to the window where the moonlight falls on one powdered cheek] Well, I haf a lot of reasons to be afraid all my time. I am dreadfully nervous now; I am not trusding anybody. I suppose you haf been killing lots of Germans? YOUNG OFF. We never know, unless it happens to be hand to hand; I haven't come in for that yet. GIRL. But you would be very glad if you had killed some. YOUNG OFF. Oh, glad? I don't think so. We're all in the same boat, so far as that's concerned. We're not glad to kill each other--not most of us. We do our job--that's all. GIRL. Oh! It is frightful. I expect I haf my brothers killed. YOUNG OFF. Don't you get any news ever? GIRL. News? No indeed, no news of anybody in my country. I might not haf a country; all that I ever knew is gone; fader, moder, sisters, broders, all; never any more I shall see them, I suppose, now. The war it breaks and breaks, it breaks hearts. [She gives a little snarl] Do you know what I was thinking when you came up to me? I was thinking of my native town, and the river in the moonlight. If I could see it again I would be glad. Were you ever homeseeck? YOUNG OFF. Yes, I have been--in the trenches. But one's ashamed with all the others.