His destination for the moment was a private hospital for officers in Belgrave Square. There his wound was dressed, and Sir Geoffrey talked persuasively to the Sister-in-charge and Surgeon, who, under pressure, allowed their patient to dine with his father quietly at a club. Sir Geoffrey never forgot that dinner. War, as soldiers see it, was brought vividly home to him by a young man who talked of indescribable horrors as if they were negligible. Everything was accepted by Lionel as part of the "show." The father listened, thinking of the pin-pricks which, since August, had so irritated his sensitive skin, and felt grievously ashamed of himself. But, in Lionel's place, with Lionel's amazing experience, he, too, was sensible that he would talk coolly. That was part of the tradition of the Service. Tremendous issues must be so faced. He took his son back to Belgrave Square at half-past nine. Lionel slept soundly. The Squire lay awake most of the night. Throughout dinner, he had suppressed his feelings. And on the threshold of the nursing-home, the father had found no other words than these: "It's jolly to have you back again, old chap." That was all, and, perhaps, enough. In bed, the Squire had no inclination to sleep. He wanted to think things out. He wanted to adjust past and present conditions, to strike some happy mean between them. Could he interpret the significance of this never-ending slaughter? Lionel had told him of a German regiment pushing too far ahead, and annihilated, not a man left. That had been described, also, as a "show." More--and worse--Lionel ridiculed the suggestion of an early peace. Kitchener was under the mark. The war was quite likely to last five years. Five years! Men such as his son, decent, quiet, sport-loving chaps, admitted with a laugh--with a laugh!!!--that the enemy was "hot stuff," and that attrition would determine the end--and nothing else. Attrition. He attempted to envisage what attrition meant where millions were engaged. Put the lot at twenty millions. How many would perish? What Divine Purpose could be accomplished by such a holocaust? But his boy was safe for the next few weeks. Two days later he brought him back to Pomfret Court.