TheCompleteMemoirsOfGeorgeSherston

Marseilles. I gave him a cheery nod and a grin, and
he smiled back at me as he stood there in his grimy
slacks and blue jersey. I hadn't spoken to him since
I "talked to him like a father" when he was awaiting
his court martial. He was in the other Company I
was with for a time in Palestine, and I took an inter-
est in him, partly because he'd served with our First
Battalion in France, and partly because of the notice-
ably nice look in his face. (He was the sc^rt of chap
that no one could help liking.) There was something
purposeful and promising about him, even when he
was only sitting on a rock in Judea trying to mend
one of his rotten boots. I remember watching him
playing football at Kantara, and he seemed the em-
bodiment of youthful enterprise. But some of the old
toughs got him blind to the world at Marseilles, and
when I heard about it I felt^quite miserable. So I went
into the shed at Domvast where he was shut up and
talked to him about making a fresh start and so on.
And I suppose he felt grateful to me, standing there
with his white face and his eyes full of tears. Seeing
him there this afternoon I felt very glad Pd been kind
to him. And he is being transferred to the Machine-
Gun Corps, where he can begin all over again and be
as popular as ever. I mention this little story because
it has struck me as such a contrast to that V.C. invest-
ment parade,

June 6. (10.30 p.m.] Was summoned this evening to
an emergency meeting of Company officers in the
Colonel's room downstairs.

Large gloomy room, not much lit by a few candles.

C.O., sitting at the end of a long table, looking
solemn and portentous, broke the news to us that we
are shortly to take over the Neuville-Vitasse sector
from the Second Canadian Division. He spoke in

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