“For all that, you aren't the nation. What would you do for yourself?”

“I belong to the nation and must do my duty by the nation.”

“But when it didn't need your services in particular — when there is no fighting? What would you do then?”

He was irritated.

“I would do what everybody else does.”

“What?”

“Nothing. I would be in readiness for when I was needed.”

The answer came in exasperation.

“It seems to me,” she answered, “as if you weren't anybody — as if there weren't anybody there, where you are.