What made him uncomfortable was the money question--the thought that he would be bringing literally nothing. I was most careful not to say anything, but every child knows that if you divide a sum of money by two... He _would_ be living on Phyllida; and, if he loved her as much as he pretended, he would always be feeling: "It's a frock for her or a suit of clothes for me." A very humiliating position for any man... I know it's the modern fashion to pretend that it doesn't matter; Phyllida says in so many words that the advantage of money to a girl is that she can marry where her heart leads her. A snare and a delusion, unless you mean that a woman with money and nothing else can occasionally buy herself _position_... I'm sure she picked that up from her poor mother. But, if Brackenbury married on his debts, he _did_ bring _something_; I know we all had to work very hard for Ruth--"doing propaganda," as my boy Will says--to shew people that the marriage was _all right_... And it will be the same with Will, if he ever marries... Who_ever_ he marries... He _does_ bring _something_... Colonel Butler asked if people would think Phyllida had thrown herself away on him. What could I say? ... But for the war, he told me, he _would_ be earning his own living; and, do you know?, that was the only time the cloven hoof appeared. "We've all of us had to make sacrifices," I answered, "and the war ought not to be made either an excuse or--an opportunity." Goodness me, you don't suppose my boy Will _enjoyed_ the fatigues, the dangers... The general was utterly callous towards his staff; but Will "stuck it out", as he would say. It was the soldier's part, and Colonel Butler knew as well as I did that it was only the war and the accident of being wounded that had thrown him across Phyllida's path. "What do you mean by 'opportunity', Lady Ann?," he asked. It was not easy to put into words... I sometimes feel that romance has gone to the head of some of our girls; first of all, a man had only to be in uniform, then he had only to be wounded... I _liked_ Colonel Butler, but in the old days Phyllida would not have looked at him... And, goodness me, if you go back a generation, you can imagine what my father would have said if a man, however pleasant, with nothing but his pay and the clothes he stood up in... A soldier only by the _accident_ of war... And in a regiment one had truly honestly never heard of... "I don't feel I can help you," I said. "Times have changed, and my ideas are out of date. My brother may be different; have you spoken to him?" ...