Evening star., 1936-11-08

would see through them to the truth.
Edgar took a week before he told
Janet what had happened. 1t was
strange how terribly he wanted to live
out his uneventful life in the suburban
house with Janet who was as dull and
Insignificant as himself - how terribly
he wanted to see William grow up.
But he realized that it would be
quite useless to be alive if William
wasn't proud of him. 1t would be much
better to be dead. But if he went, he
had to be sure that he would 60
decently.
When he was quite sure. he told
Janet. 1t was pretty terrible because
Janet. being woman, couldn't un-
derstand the special relations between
men. She couldn't see how vital it was
that Edgar and William should have
a mans understanding of each other
All that she could see was that Edgar
didn't have to go and that he was
destroying their happiness. He knew
it too. But he couldn't help himself.
And SO they quarrelled bitterly for
the very first time.
Edgar Pusey looked sketch of a
soldier in his soldiers kit. But it
wasn't pretty war and didn't matter
much what you looked like. 1t didn't
matter much. either, what you felt or
what you were. You might be brave
or cowardly. You had to do what it
wanted. And in any event it made
mincemeat of you. Actually Edgar
Pusey behaved extremely well. He
was the only man in his company who
was inspired by a real passion. In a
sense he had already given his life
for William. So there was nothing to
frighten him except the fear of not
going through with the giving de-
Gently.
Three days before Armistice, he
carried three wounded men to safety
under withering machine gun fire
and was cited for the Victoria Cross,
with which he was duly decorated:
For Valour."
The War. however, did not end on
Armistice Day. For Edgar Pusey it
went on fora dreary. bewildering year.
And when he came back at last, a
great deal had happened. The poster
had gone. And his job was gone.
So that Mon Repos, which Edgar
had been buying on the installment
plan, became somebody else's repose.
And Edgar, who had no pension be-
cause the War hadn't done him any
harm - had in fact made a man of
him - went to live in two rooms with
Janet and William and eventually
went on the dole with them.
But he carried himself well, with
self-respect and courage, knowing that
he had done his bit and that William
had no cause to be ashamed. Not that
he talked about what he had done.
The people at the Labor Exchange
had no idea that the neat, shabby
little man was hero.
But he could talk to William. He
had right - almost duty to talk to
William. Just because he was down
and out he had to make William un-
derstand what sort of man his father
really was. In the evening. when he
came back from looking for some job
and everyone could see that he hadn't
got it, he would set William on the
untidy bed and tell him stories of
Edgar Pusey and the Great War.
Janet made point of not listening.
And she wouldn't talk. Her silence
was a sort of bitter nagging She
couldn't forget Mon Repos, and she
couldn't understand what William
and Edgar understood, because they
were men together. Sometimes she'd
flounce out, slamming the door, and
not come back till midnight, silent
and f,,rio,,s And one niuht che went