desire,’” he muttered as he followed the physician. In the consulting-room he explained: “It’s about my son——” He had not been able to bring the phrase out in the presence of the young man who must have been just George’s age, and who was leaving in an hour for his regiment. But between Campton and the father there were complicities, and there might therefore be accommodations. In the consulting-room one breathed a lower air. 69It was not that Campton wanted to do anything underhand. He was genuinely anxious about George’s health. After all, tuberculosis did not disappear in a month or even a year: his anxiety was justified. And then George, but for the stupid accident of his birth, would never have been mixed up in the war. Campton felt that he could make his request with his head high. 69 Fortin-Lescluze seemed to think so too; at any rate he expressed no surprise. But could anything on earth have surprised him, after thirty years in that confessional of a room? The difficulty was that he did not see his way to doing anything—not immediately, at any rate. “You must let the boy join his base. He leaves to-morrow? Give me the number of his regiment and the name of the town, and trust me to do what I can.” “But you’re off yourself?” “Yes: I’m being sent to a hospital at Lyons. But I’ll leave you my address.” Campton lingered, unable to take this as final. He looked about him uneasily, and then, for a moment, straight into the physician’s eyes. “You must know how I feel; your boy is an only son, too.” “Yes, yes,” the father assented, in the absent-minded tone of professional sympathy. But Campton felt that he felt the deep difference. “Well, goodbye—and thanks.” 70As Campton turned to go the physician laid a hand on his shoulder and spoke with sudden fierce emotion. “Yes: Jean is an only son—an only child. For his mother and myself it’s not a trifle—having our only son in the war.” 70 There was no allusion to the dancer, no hint that Fortin remembered her; it was Campton who lowered his gaze before
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