ans, singers, painters, dancers,
and actors. She believed Germany had a great civilizing,
culture-spreading mission in South-east Europe; and that the germs
of this war lay in the policy of Chamberlain, the protectionism of
the United States, the revengeful spirit and colonial selfishness of
France.

But she shuddered over the German cruelties in Belgium and France.
The horrors of War were a revelation to her and she was henceforth a
Pacifist before all things. "_Your_ old statesmen and _our_ old or
middle-aged generals, my dear, are alike to blame. But you and I
know where the _real_ mischief lies. We are mis-ruled by an
All-Man Government. _I_, certainly, don't want the other extreme,
an All-Woman Government. What we want, and must have, is a
Man-and-Woman--a Married--Government. _Then_ we shall settle our
differences without going to war."

Vivie agreed with her, cordially.

She--Vivie--I really ought to begin calling her "Vivien": she is
forty-one by now--in resuming her duties at the Hopital de St.
Pierre found no repugnance in tending wounded German soldiers--the
officers she did shrink from--She realized that the soldiers were
but the slaves of the officer class, of Kaiserdom. Her reward for
this degree of Christianity was to have a batch of wounded English
boys or men to look after. She saw again Bertie Adams in many of
them, especially in the sergeants and corporals. They, in turn,
thought her a very handsome, stately lady, but rather maudlin at
times. "So easy to set 'er off a-cryin' as though 'er 'eart would
break, poor thing.... And I says 'why ma'am, the pain's _nuthin_',
nuthin' to what it use ter be.' 'Spec' she lost some son in the war.
Wonder 'ow she came to be 'ere? Ain't the Germans afraid of 'er!"...

They were. The mental agony she had been through had etherialized
her face, added to its look of age and gravity, but imparted
likewise a sort of "awfulness." She exhaled an aura of righteous
authority. She had been through the furnace, and foolishness and
petulance had been burnt out of her ... though, thank goodness, she
retained some sense of humour. She had probably never been so
handsome from the painter's point of view, though one could not
imagine a young man falling in love with her now.

Her personality was first definitely noted by the Bruxellois the day
that von Bissing's funeral cortege passed through the streets of
Brussels on its way to Germany. Vivien Warren was sufficiently
resto