Apparently everybody in his company was a hero, and had deserved the Military Cross ten times over, except himself.

He described some incidents he had personally seen, and through the repressed fire with which he spoke, the personality and ideals of the man revealed themselves--normal, strong, self-forgetting.

Had he even forgotten the little creature beside him?
Hardly, for instinctively he softened away some of the terrible details of blood and pain.

But he had forgotten Nelly's prohibition.

And when again they had entered the dark wood which lay between them and the cottage on the river-bank, suddenly he heard a trembling breath, and a sob.
He caught her in his arms.
'Nelly, darling! Oh, I was a brute to talk to you like this.' 'No,' she said, struggling with herself--'No! Wait a moment.' She lay against him trembling through every limb, while he kissed and comforted her.
'I'm--I'm not a coward, George!' she said at last, gasping,--'I'm not indeed.