But now his heart swelled proudly at the thought of the old
country--of all that she had endured since then. He had thought England
altered and very much for the worse, when he was in London on his two
brief "leaves" during the War, but now he knew how unchanged his country
was--in the things that really matter....
When he had come back for good, this summer, he had looked forward to an
easy, selfish life--the sort of life certain men whom he had envied as a
boy used to lead before the war.
Radmore knew, as every man who has lived to the age of thirty-two must
know, that marriage brings with it certain cares, responsibilities, and
troubles, and so he had deliberately made up his mind to avoid marriage,
though he had been conscious the while that if he fell violently in love,
then, perhaps, half knowing all the time that he was a fool, he might
find himself pushed into marriage with some foolish girl, or what was
perchance more likely, with a pretty widow.
To-night he realised with a sort of shame that there were moments--he
was glad that they were only moments--when he felt uneasily yet strongly
attracted to Enid Crofton, and that though he knew how selfish, how
self-absorbed and, yes, how cruel she could be.
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