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[Page 79]
the cleanliness of this carriage in the Hospital train. Many of us are really too far gone to care much what happens, though for my part I am sufficiently conscious to appreciate my environment.
The Indian orderlies greet us with a welcome smile, meanwhile handing us cigarettes – I cannot smoke mine, having lost all desire for anything. Later we are handed bread and butter – only those who have been without bread for a considerable period could fully appreciate what a luxury this was.
I would eat nothing – to be in the train was all sufficient; now my duties in Hospital ship are over and no further efforts are require of me, I am tumbling all to pieces.
Reach Heliopolis. The train is met by motor ambulances and we are carried off to Palace Hospital. After the ceaseless thunder of guns, the agony, filth and desolation of the battlefield, it was indeed like Heaven to be tucked between clean sheets in the silence of this ward – the softly shaded lights, the Sisters gliding noiselessly about ministering to our many wants, the Eastern architecture and decoration, and, half lost in the dim shadows above, gold-beaten brass lamps of exquisite workmanship; without, a purple sky of an Egyptian night; all helped to give a sense of unreality. I half expected to find myself wafted away on a magic carpet.