INTRODUCTION (continued 5)
Reading edition
More especially I hate the cliffs of Dover. For it is there that we must land. I should not have thought it possible to hate the white coast of my own country when she is at war.
And now I know that I hate it because it is not the coast of Flanders. Which would be absurd if I were really going back again.
Yes, I must have had a premonition.
[Dover.]
We have landed now. I have said good-bye to Captain King and all the ship's officers and thanked them for their kindness. I have said good-bye to the British Red Cross lady, who is not going to London.
And I go to the station telegraph-office to send off five wires.
I am sending off the five wires when I hear feet returning through the station hall. The Red Cross lady is back again. She is saying this time that she is really sure she has done the right thing.
And again I assure her that she has.
Well—there are obsessions and obsessions. I do not know whether I have done the right thing or not in leaving Flanders (or, for that matter, in leaving Ghent). All that I know is that I love it and that I have left it. And that I want to go back.