ay take several days to get to
Switzerland, and it may be difficult to get out of Germany. I think I
shall say I'm an American. Frau Berg, poor thing, will be relieved to
find me gone. She only took me in tonight because of Bernd. While she
was demurring on the threshold, when at last I got to her after a
terrifying walk through the crowds,--for I was afraid they would notice
me and see, as they always do, that I'm English,--his soldier servant
brought her a note from him which just turned the scale for me. I'm
afraid humanity wouldn't have done it, nor pity, for patriotism and
pity don't go well together here.

I wonder if you'll believe how calmly I'm going to bed and to sleep
tonight, on the night of what might seem to be the ruin of my
happiness. I'm glad I've written everything down that has happened
this evening. It has got it so clear to me. I don't want ever to
forget one word or look of Bernd's tonight. I don't want ever to
forget his patience, his dear look of untouchable dignity, when the
Colonel, because he is in authority and can be cruel, at such a moment
in the lives of two poor human beings was so unkind.

God bless and keep you, my mother,--my dear sweet mother.

Your Chris.

_Halle, Wednesday night, August 5th, 1914_.

I've got as far as this, and hope to get on in an hour or two. We've
been stopped to let troop trains pass. They go rushing by one after
the other, packed with waving, shouting soldiers, all of them with
flowers stuck about them, in their buttonholes and caps. I've been
watching them. There's no end to them. And the enthusiasm of the
crowds on the platform as they go by never slackens. I'm making for
Zurich. I tried for Bale. but couldn't get into Switzerland that
way,--it is _abgesperrt_. I hadn't much difficulty getting a ticket in
Berlin. There was such confusion and such a rush at the ticket office
that the man just asked me why I wanted to go; and I said I was
American and rejoining my mother, and he flung me the ticket, only too
glad to get rid of me. Don't expect me till you see me, for we shall
be held up lots of times, I'm sure.

I'm all right, mother darling. It was fearfully hot all day, squeezed
tight in a third class carriage--no other class to be had. It's cold
and draughty in this station by comparison, and I wish I had my coat.
I've brought nothing away with me, except my fiddle and what would go
into its case, which was handkerchief