Then work closed over his head. He became a railway time-table, a lost-luggage office, a registrar, and a store commissioner. He had the duties of a special Providence thrust upon him, with all the disadvantages of being readily held accountable, so skilfully evaded by the higher powers. Junior officers flew to him for orders as belated ladies fly to their pin cushions for pins. He ate when it was distinctly necessary, and slept two hours out of the twenty-four. He left nothing undone which he could do himself; his mind was unfavorable to chance. The heads of departments listened when he made suggestions, and found it convenient to answer with accuracy his sudden questions. Subordinates hurried to obey his infrequent but final orders; and when Winn said, "I think you'd find it better," people found it better. The division slipped off like cream, without impediment or hitch. There were no delays, the men acquired their kit, and found their railway carriages. The trains swept in velvet softness out of the darkened London station through the sweet, quiet, summer night into a sleepless Folkestone. The division went straight onto the right transports; there wasn't a man, a horse, or a gun out of place. Winn heaved a sigh of relief as he stepped on board; his troubles as a staff officer had only just begun, but they had begun as troubles should always begin, by being adequately met. There were no arrears. He did not think of Claire until he stood on deck and saw the lights receding and the shadow that was England passing out of his sight. He remembered her then with a little pang of joy--for suddenly he knew that he was free to think of her. He had thought of her before as a man registers a fact that is always present to him, but in the interval since he had seen her his consciousness of her had been increasingly troubled. Now the trouble was fading, as England faded, as his old life was fading. He had a sense that he was finally freed. It was not like seeing Claire again, but it was like not having to see anything else. "Until I'm dead I'm hers, and after I'm dead I'm hers, so that's all right," he said to himself. "I haven't got to muddle things up any more." The sea lay around them at dawn like a sheet of pearl--it was very empty but for the gulls' wings beating to and fro out of the mist. Winn had lived through many campaigns. He had known rough jungle tussles in mud swamps, maddened by insects, thirst, and fever; he had fought in colder, cleaner dangers down the Khyber Pass, and he had gone through the episodic scientific flurries of South Africa; but France disconcerted him; he had never started a campaign before in a country like a garden, met by welcoming populations, with flowers and fruit. It made him feel sick. The other places were the proper ones for war.