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[Page 52]
-21-
It would hardly be expected that with men and women so closely associated there would not be some romances, and one of these had a happy termination in a Khaki wedding I attended at Head Quarters. The price to pay was however a separation after three days, for military rule forbade husband and wife to be in service together in France. Just as I left the Church I met two Melbourne Nurses - Miss Rosenthal, and Miss Jobson, partners in a Toorak private hospital now doing duty as Anathetists. This was in March and that month will be ever remembered for it loomed dark with apprehension. Every day there was news of a fresh reverse, and every night there were deafening noises of bombardment. Sometimes the enemy would come so silently that there was no warning, and the first indication would be falling bombs the concussion of which would shatter our windows, and the falling glass add to the pandemonium. As a rule the visitations took place early in the evening, and we were able to get some sleep at a reasonable time, but there seemed to be a scheme of relays and we would just get to bed with one lot driven off, when settling down for sleep another lot would come and again we had to go underground. It was at this time of unwanted activity we found the benefit of a discovery I had made in getting an entrance effected from the vestibule so that we could get shelter without going into the Court Yard, and so we were saved from the danger of falling shrapnel as well as the extreme cold that in any case always made our teeth chatter.
With the discomfort in itself rather trying, there came all sorts of disquieting reports. Trains being wrecked en-route from Paris; Channel Steamers discontinued, more reverses including Cambrai, when we were at first buoyed up with news of victory. It was all very depressing. At the end of a month on a night when the moon was shining as bright as day, and we could see from the windows that looked