Herman Cyril McNeile

Name: Mufti — Chapter 2
Author: Herman Cyril McNeile

Mufti — Chapter 2 (1919)

Summary

“Mufti — Chapter 2”, published in 1919, is a work by Herman Cyril McNeile. It explores elements such as Vane, Margaret and Gunner.

Quotes from Mufti — Chapter 2 (Herman Cyril McNeile)

Herman Cyril McNeile, Mufti — Chapter 2 (1919)

“ Vane closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but sleep was far away that night. Whenever he opened them he saw Margaret writing at her table; and once there came to him an irresistible temptation to speak to her. He felt that he wanted her near him, if only for a moment; he wanted to lean on her--he wanted to be taken in her arms like a little child. Angrily he closed his eyes again. It was ridiculous, absurd, weak. . . . But there have been times in this war when the strongest man has sobbed like a child in his weakness. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Herman Cyril McNeile, Mufti — Chapter 2 (1919)

“ Right at the other end a man was groaning feebly; while just opposite, looking ghastly in the dim light, a boy was staring round the tent with eyes that did not see. For hours on end he lay unconscious, breathing the rattling breath of the badly gassed; then suddenly he would lift his head, and his eyes, fixed and staring, would slowly turn from bed to bed. He looked as a man looks who is walking in his sleep, and Vane knew he was very near the Great Divide. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Herman Cyril McNeile, Mufti — Chapter 2 (1919)

“ He smiled and lay back on his pillows. "An arm makes one feel so helpless."
"I think I'd sooner lose an arm than a leg," remarked the Gunner from the next bed. For a while they pursued this debatable point, much as men discuss politics, and incidentally with far less heat. . . . It was a question of interest, and the fact that the Gunner had lost his leg made no difference to the matter at all. An onlooker would have listened in vain for any note of complaint. . . .
"Time you were getting to sleep--both of you." Margaret's voice interrupted the conversation, and Vane looked up with a smile. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Herman Cyril McNeile, Mufti — Chapter 2 (1919)

“ Two beds further along the Padre was playing a game of chess with a Major in the Devons; and on the opposite side of the tent another chaplain, grey haired and clean shaven, was talking and laughing with a boy, whose face and head were swathed in bandages.
The R.C. and the C. of E. exponents hunting in couples as these two always did. . . . They are not the only two who before the war would have relegated the other to the nethermost depths of the deepest Hell; but whose eyes have been opened to wisdom now.
Vane was no theologian--no more than are the thousands of others across the water. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Herman Cyril McNeile, Mufti — Chapter 2 (1919)

“ Together they picked him up, fumbling in the darkness, and laid him on the ground beside his bed. Then Vane took her arm, and shouted in her ear, "Lie down, I tell you, lie down . . . quite flat." Obediently she lay down, and he stretched himself beside her on the ground. To the crashing of the bombs were now added the shouts and curses of men outside; and once Margaret made an effort to rise.
"The patients, Derek. Let me go."
With his one sound arm he kept her down by force. "You can do nothing," he said roughly. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Herman Cyril McNeile, Mufti — Chapter 2 (1919)

“ He was unconscious once again, and it suddenly struck Vane as strange that whereas, up in front, he had seen death and mutilation in every possible and impossible form- that though he had seen men hit by a shell direct, and one man crushed by a Tank--yet he had never been impressed with the same sense of the utter futility of war as now, in face of this boy dying in the bed opposite. To have come so far and then to pay the big price ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Herman Cyril McNeile, Mufti — Chapter 2 (1919)

“ But in the Game of Death the thoughts of many men have probed things they passed over lightly before. It is not doctrine they want; faith and belief in beautiful formulas have become less and less satisfying. ”

[↩︎]

Source: Wikisource

Herman Cyril McNeile, Mufti — Chapter 2 (1919)

“ To be bombed is poisonous, rather more poisonous than to be shelled. If there are no dug-outs there is only one thing to be done, and that is what Vane was doing.
To lie flat on the ground minimises the danger except from a direct hit ”

Herman Cyril McNeile

Summary

Quotes from Mufti — Chapter 2 (Herman Cyril McNeile)

Common terms

Similar works

Get perspective with Kwize: daily news enlightened by great literature