Chapter: THE MATERNITY NURSING HOME LORNE HOUSE, STOKE NEWINGTON

Her Royal Highness Princes Louise, the Duchess of Argyll, defrayed the
cost of the purchase of the leasehold of this charming Home. The
lady-Officer in charge informed me that the object of the
establishment is to take in women who have or are about to have
illegitimate children. It is not, however, a lying-in Home, the
mothers being sent to the Ivy House Hospital for their confinements.
After these are over they are kept for four or sometimes for six
months at Lorne House. At the expiration of this period situations are
found for most of them, and the babies are put out to nurse in the
houses of carefully selected women with whom the mothers can keep in
touch. These women are visited from time to time by Salvation Army
Officers who make sure that the infants are well treated in every way.

All the cases in this Home are those of girls who have fallen into
trouble for the first time. They belong to a better class than do
those who are received in many of the Army Homes. The charge for their
maintenance is supposed to be L1 a week, but some pay only 5s., and
some nothing at all. As a matter of fact, out of the twelve cases
which the Home will hold, at the time of my visit half were making no
payment. If the Army averages a contribution of 7s. a week from them,
it thinks itself fortunate.

I saw a number of the babies in cradles placed in an old greenhouse in
the garden to protect them from the rain that was falling at the time.
When it is at all fine they are kept as much as possible in the open
air, and the results seem to justify this treatment, for it would be
difficult to find healthier infants.

Five or six of the inmates sleep together in a room; for those with
children a cot is provided beside each bed. I saw several of these
young women, who all seemed to be as happy and contented as was
possible under their somewhat depressing circumstances.

 Rivers travels to Burns's seaside house in Suffolk to spend a few days there. He thinks Burns sent for him so that he can meet with Mr. and Mrs. Burns and talk about the future of their son. However, when Rivers arrives he is surprised to find that Burns's parents are not there, nor are they expected to come. Burns is staying at the seaside home while his parents remain in London. Though Burns is still extremely thin and suffers from awful nightmares, Rivers is hesitant to ask him to talk about his memories. He feels that if Burns wants to talk about things, he will bring them up himself. Rivers wonders why he has never really forced his treatment onto Burns, as he has done to the other patients. He has allowed Burns to try to forget his memories; now he wonders if that was really the best thing for him. They spend a few days taking walks, visiting the local pub, and talking about other things. One night there is a severe storm, and Rivers hears what he thinks to be a bomb. He wakes up, dresses, and goes outside to find a small crowd of people by a boat on the beach. Rivers asks where Burns is, and a woman points toward the marshes. Rivers pushes through the storm, down into a tunnel that floods at high tide. There he finds Burns, cold and completely rigid, but alive. Rivers thinks to himself, "Nothing justifies this. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Later, after Burns warms up and has had a good long rest, he opens up to Rivers about his war experience. He was made the captain of a platoon at the early age of twenty-one. It was his job to write letters to families about their sons who had been killed; often it would be more than one in a family. He talks about the brutality of the Battle of the Somme, how his men were ordered to attack over a dike and merely proved to be target practice for the German machine guns. Burns would often go on patrol, hoping to be shot in the arm or leg so that he could get home safely. Burns reflects on the tremendous capacity in the imagination for torture and evil; he alludes to the awful imagination that led to death on a cross by suffocation. Rivers wonders if this is talk is helping to heal Burns, realizing it might just be a sign of further deterioration. Rivers wonders about Burns's future and concludes that he has "missed his chance of being ordinary

