War-time Silhouettes

On a gloomy December afternoon, Mr. Adolf Reiss hides behind his newspaper as if it were a battlefield parapet. His nephew arrives in khaki with an awkward request—and a story about a captain’s engagement ring.

In wartime England, the elderly merchant Reiss sees the world in accounts: half his fortune is gone, and generosity is just another expense. When his nephew Percy asks for help before being sent to the Front, Reiss learns that Percy has already lent money to Captain Staples, who wants to buy a ring for the woman he loves. Reiss grumbles about waste, respectability and the cost of war—yet reaches for his cheque book. Between an old man’s guarded wealth and a young soldier’s loyalty lies a question neither can quite say aloud: what is money worth when the war is calling?

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