He ardently desired to pursue it further. He ardently desired sleep and renewal so that he might rise afresh and pursue it further. What he had done and been through was naught, less than naught. To worry about physical discomforts was babyish. Inviting vistas of knowledge, technical attainment, experience, and endurance stretched before him, illuminating the night. His mind dwelt on France, on Mons, on the idea of terror and cataclysm. And it had room too for his wife and children. He had had no news of them for over twenty-four hours; and he had broken his resolve to write to Lois every day; he had been compelled to break it. But in the morning, somehow, he would send a telegram and he would get one. "If it's true the French Government has left Paris--" The nocturnal young ducks were passing the shelter. "And who says it's true? Who told you, I should like to know?" "The Major has heard it." "Rats! I lay you a fiver the Allies are in Berlin before Christmas." End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Roll-Call, by Arnold Bennett