But as to
Hermann's determination to go to Germany, which made this so terribly
real, since it was beginning to enter into practical everyday life,
he had neither means nor indeed desire to combat it. He saw perfectly
clearly that Hermann must go.
"I don't want to dissuade you," he said, "not only because it would be
useless, but because I am with you. You couldn't do otherwise, Hermann."
"I don't see that I could. Sylvia agrees too."
A terrible conjecture flashed through Michael's mind.
"And she?" he asked.
"She can't leave my mother, of course," said Hermann, "and, after all,
I may be on a wild goose chase. But I can't risk being unable to get to
Germany, if--if the worst happens."
The ghost of a smile played round his mouth for a moment.
"And I'm not sure that she could leave you, Mike," he added.
Somehow this, though it gave Michael a moment of intensest relief to
know that Sylvia remained, made the shadow grow deeper, accentuated the
lines of the storm which had begun to spread over the sky. He began
to see as nightmare no longer, but as stern and possible realities,
something of the unutterable woe, the divisions, the heart-breaks which
menaced.
"Hermann, what do you think will happen?" he said.
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