once she
hadn't at all liked--were only alive, it would be the proudest moment
of his life when, at the head of his regiment, he would go forth to
slay President Poincare. "And if," she said, her eyes flashing, "owing
to his high years his regiment was no longer able to accept his heroic
leadership, he would, I know, proceed secretly to France as an
assassin, and bomb the infamous Poincare,--bomb him in the name of our
Kaiser, of our Fatherland, and of our God."

"Amen," said Frau Berg, very loud.

I flew to Bernd when he came. It was as if a door had been flung open,
and the freshness and sanity of early morning came into the room when
he did. I hung on his arm, and looked up into his dear shrewd eyes, so
clear and kind, so full of wisdom. The boarders were with one accord
servile to him; even Doctor Krummlaut, a clever man with far better
brains probably than Bernd. Bernd, from habit, stiffened and became
unapproachable the instant the middle class public in the shape of the
congratulatory boarders appeared. He doesn't even know he's like that,
his training has made it second nature. You should have seen his
lofty, complete indifference. It was dreadfully rude really, and oh
how they loved him for it! They simply adored him, and were ready to
lick his boots. It was so funny to see them sidling about him, all of
them wagging their tails. He was the master, come among the slaves.
But to think that even Doctor Krummlaut should sidle!

There's a most terrific _extra_ noise going on outside. I can hardly
hear myself write. I don't know whether to run and find out what it
is, or retreat to the bathroom. My ears won't stand much more,--I
shall get deaf, and not be able to play.

_Later_.

What has happened is that special editions of the papers have appeared
announcing that the Kaiser has decreed a state of war for the whole of
Germany. Well. They've done it now. For I did extract from a very
cheerful-looking caller I met coming upstairs to the drawingroom that a
state of war is followed as inevitably by the real thing as a German
betrothal is followed by marriage. One is as committal as the other,
he said. It is the rarest thing, and produces an immense scandal, for
an engagement to be broken off; and, explained the caller looking
extremely pleased,--he was a man-caller, and therefore more willing to
stop and talk--to proceed backwards from a state of war to the _status
quo ante_ might produc