ndows of
Spargnapani's, looking on the Lindens. The small rooms were filled to
overflowing, and the guests were crammed together in the open doorways,
or on the stone staircase, where their loud talking mingled with the
noise of the people in the street. The king's carriage had hardly
passed, when several young men sprang shouting into the room, threw a
quantity of printed leaflets, still damp from the press, on the nearest
table, and rushed out again. These were the proofs of an address on the
war to the king. No one knew who had written it, who had had it
printed, who the people were who had distributed it, but everyone
crowded excitedly round it, and begged for pens from the counter to add
their signatures to it. A few specially enthusiastic souls even put a
table with inkstands and pens out on the pavement, and called to the
passers-by to sign the paper. Paul was among the first to fulfill this
duty of citizenship, and then handed the pen to his friend. But Wilhelm
laid it down on the table, took Paul's arm, and drew him out of the
crowd into the quiet of the Friedrichstrasse.

"Are you a Prussian?" cried Paul angrily.

"I am as good a Prussian as you are," said Wilhelm quietly, "and ready
to do my duty again, as I have done it before, but these silly
effusions don't affect me at all."

"Such a manifesto gives the government the moral force for the sternest
fulfillment of duty."

"I hope you are not in earnest when you say that, my dear Paul. The
government does what it has to do without troubling itself about our
manifestoes. It is repugnant to me to have my approval of the war
dragged from me without being asked for it. I may not appear to say
'yes' willingly, but at the same time may not have the right to say
'no.'"

Paul followed silently, and Wilhelm went on:

"You deceive yourself as to your duty like all these people, who
imagine that they are still separate individuals, and that they can
sanction or forbid as they will the declaration of war. I, however,
know and feel that I have no longer a voice in the matter. I have only
to obey. I am no longer an individual. I am only an evanescent
subordinate unit in the organism of the State. A power over which I
have no control has taken possession of me, and has made my will of no
avail. Is there still a part of your destiny which you have the power
to guide as you will? Is there such for me? We shall be forced to join
simply in the united destiny of one peop