Children of no Man's Land by G.B. Stern

I

Why had he not thought of suicide before this? Looked upon calmly and dispassionately, from a merely business aspect, it was the only course for him-lacking the vital sustenance which men drew nowadays from love of their own land. It annoyed Richard that even though he had reached the sea, the sea was nowhere in sight-lost behind wide flats of mud. He leant against the rail which divided the path beside the railway from a strip of coarse sand, sullenly determined not to plunge across all that marsh till he found deep enough water to drown him; even suicide, it seemed, was to be a difficulty and a favour; -well, the sea could come to him-he would wait for the returning tide.