He had the sensation of human
beings, men like himself, who ate and drank and laced their boots,
being actually at that moment up there in the sky with intent to
kill him and Christine. It was a marvellous sensation, terrible but
exquisite. And he had the sensation of other human beings beyond the
sea, giving deliberate orders in German for murder, murdering for
their lives; and they, too, were like himself, and ate and drank and
either laced their boots or had them laced daily. And the staggering
apprehension of the miraculous lunacy of war swept through his soul.
Chapter 30
THE CHILD'S ARM
"You see," he said to Christine, "it was not a Zeppelin.... We shall
be quite safe here."
But in that last phrase he had now confessed to her the existence
of an air-raid. He knew that he was not behaving with the maximum
of sagacity. There were, for example, hotels with subterranean
grill-rooms close by, and there were similar refuges where danger
would be less than in the street, though the street was narrow and
might be compared to a trench. And yet he had said, "We shall be quite
safe here." In others he would have condemned such an attitude.
Now, however, he realised that he was very like others.
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