‘You saw Virginia,’ she asked listlessly. ‘How was she?’ ‘Great,’ Guy said. ‘They let me take her out in work hours. She’s loving it all, Mummy.’ ‘I suppose their officers, or supervisors, or whatever they call them, at least, are ladies?’ ‘I believe so, but Virginia doesn’t want to become one, though they’ve suggested it to her.’ His mother nodded and looked back into the fire. Guy wondered what she did with herself. With no husband or children at home, housekeeping could not take up much time, especially as she still had Mrs Orr and Ivy, though Ivy was now married – to a soldier in France. She didn’t knit, or sew, or paint, just sat, walked, shopped, but everything listlessly. He said, ‘I’ve seen Daddy once since Granny’s funeral. I took a day off and went up the line and spent the day with his battalion. Old Sulphuric likes us to do that. He was looking well then, though I don’t understand how anyone can stick it there for …’ She interrupted, ‘Why would he do it to me?
