Hermann in bursts of
pride and patriotism used to call us toy-soldiers. But he's wrong now;
we're not going to be toy-soldiers any more."
She did not answer him, but he felt her hand press close in the palm of
his.
"I can't tell you how I dreaded we shouldn't go to war," he said. "That
has been a nightmare, if you like. It would have been the end of us if
we had stood aside and seen Germany violate a solemn treaty."
Even with Michael close to her, the call of her blood made itself
audible to Sylvia. Instinctively she withdrew her hand from his.
"Ah, you don't understand Germany at all," she said. "Hermann always
felt that too. He told me he felt he was talking gibberish to you when
he spoke of it. It is clearly life and death to Germany to move against
France as quickly as possible."
"But there's a direct frontier between the two," said he.
"No doubt, but an impossible one."
Michael frowned, drawing his big eyebrows together.
"But nothing can justify the violation of a national oath," he said.
"That's the basis of civilisation, a thing like that."
"But if it's a necessity? If a nation's existence depends on it?" she
asked. "Oh, Michael, I don't know! I don't know! For a little I am
entirely English, and then something calls to me from beyond the Rhine!
There's the hopelessness of it for me and such as me.
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