The Well of Loneliness

Four years into the war, Stephen’s dream has come true and she is working as an ambulance driver on the front lines in France. At the current moment; she is watching her unit’s newest recruit, Mary Llewellyn, sleep peacefully after having just suffered through many “hours of intensive bombardment” (251). While she sits there, she thinks back to when Mrs. Breakspeare recruited her in England. Puddle insisted on telling Anna since Stephen would be in “real danger” (252). Anna asked for Stephen to visit first, and Stephen accepted as she wanted to see Morton. The visit was bittersweet. Williams was dead and his niece was sick, pregnant, and unsure where the father was. Raferty’s grave and Sir Philip’s burial grounds were unkempt, and her mother looked old and impossibly frail. Stephen left quickly to tell Puddle to go to Anna. Puddle hesitated because she had not forgiven Anna for the way she had treated Stephen, but Stephen insisted she go, and Puddle finally gave in. Stephen is pulled from her reverie by the presence of a German threat, so she shakes Mary awake, and they suit up in gas masks and prepare for the fight. 

Stephen and Mary drive along a shell-shocked street, avoiding the still-flying shells.