And he was conscious of liking it, of wanting to sink back in it as a man sinks back in an easy-chair.

He felt he ought not to do so, and he made a kind of mental effort to pull himself together.
Up on the deck the world was very fair.

The French coast was now clearly visible, and even the houses of the town, huddled together as it seemed, but dominated by a church on the hill.

Behind them, a sister ship containing Tommies ploughed steadily along, serene and graceful in the sunlight, and above an airship of silvery aluminum, bearing the tricoloured circle of the Allies, kept pace with the swift ship without an effort.

Four destroyers were visible, their low, dark shapes ploughing regularly along at stated intervals, and someone said a fifth was out of sight behind.