'
'I don't say it is a palatable draught, but when the war is over we
shall all shake down to the new conditions. No fear of my being
sarcastic to you then, Roger. I'll have to be jolly respectful.'
'Shut up, father!'
'You've begun, you see. Don't worry, Roger. Any rawness I might feel
in having missed the chance of seeing whether I was a man--like Coxon,
confound him!--is swallowed up in the pride of giving the chance to
you. I'm in a shiver about you, but--It's all true, Roger, what your
mother said about 2nd Lieutenants. Till the other day we were so little
of a military nation that most of us didn't know there _were_ 2nd
Lieutenants. And now, in thousands of homes we feel that there is
nothing else. 2nd Lieutenant! It is like a new word to us--one, I
daresay, of many that the war will add to our language. We have taken
to it, Roger. If a son of mine were to tarnish it--'
'I'll try not to,' Roger growls.
'If you did, I should just know that there had been something wrong
about me.'
Gruffly, 'You're all right.'
'If I am, you are.' It is a winning face that Mr.
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