Though Vera talks much of her suffering in waiting for news about Roland, the center of the pain and evidence of the war's effects is found in Roland's letters to Vera. In his descriptions of the trenches in "Learning Versus Life", part 13, he says "The dug-outs have been nearly all blown in, the wire entanglements are a wreck, and in among the chaos of twisted iron and splintered timber and shapeless earth are the fleshless, blackened bones of simple men who poured out their red, sweet wine of youth unknowing, for nothing more tangible than Honour or their Country's Glory or another's Lust of Power. Let him who thinks War is a glorious, golden thing, who loves to roll forth stirring words of exhortation, invoking Honour and Praise and Valour and Love of Country with as thoughtless and fervid a faith as inspired the priests..." This particular recounting caught my attention because I realized THIS was the correspondence between two young people in love. These were the kinds of letters they sent. There seems to be very little fervid romance and instead, tragedy and pain and practicality. Even their engagement seems somewhat practical and pragmatic rather than romantic. I realize this is a society still relatively fresh out of the Victorian Era, but I feel that the war has stolen the fire from these young people's hearts and crushed their romance, replacing it with a calculating, strained relationship based on letters about death, decay, and sadness. Even Vera's choice to become a nurse was a masochistic decision, made only because she knew Roland was suffering and felt ridiculous living a comfortable life during such terrible times.