[fantasyfan]

As the book progressed, I found myself liking Vera Brittain more and more--both the exterior author who has experienced more of life and the enthusiastic and idealistic girl. One very moving passage show a sudden loving humility in the young Vera. It takes place as she parts with Roland on the train:

"To my amazement, taut and tearless as I was, I saw him hastily mop his eyes with his handkerchief, and in that moment, when it was too late to respond or to show that I understood, I realised how much more he cared for me than I had supposed or he had eve shown. I felt, too, so bitterly sorry for him because he had to fight against his tears while I had no wish to cry at all, and the intolerable longing to comfort him when there was no more time in which todo it made me furious with the frantic pain of impotent desire."

There is a such a feel of the discovery of truth in this deeply introspective passage.