Goodbye to All That

Graves arrives at Waterloo Station in London along with other wounded men. A crowd, waving flags and cheering, greets them. Graves travels to Queen Alexandra's Hospital, a large house owned by an aristocrat being used as a war hospital, to finish his recovery. In the hospital, Graves’s mother receives "enthusiastic condolences" (226) from people who didn't even get along with Graves, including a terrible formal headmaster. Graves also receives a letter of formal apology from The Times for having published "some biographical details" (227) in his obituary.

Graves and Sassoon agree to travel to Harlech together once they both recover. They meet and take the train from Paddington Station on September 6. At Harlech, the two spend time getting their "poems in order" (232). Sassoon begins writing his memoirs and Graves begins writing a novel based on his experiences in the war that he will later repurpose for this autobiography. Both men write poems about the war. Later in September, Graves travels to Kent, to visit a friend recovering from a war wound. The friend's older brother had been killed in combat but their mother left his bedroom "exactly as he had left it" (232), with fresh flowers and linens.