“Our people are kindly disposed, but they are quite likely to be savage when imposed upon or deceived,” she added. “Ah! They are like my own countrymen, whose hearts are tender, Frau Gray, but those hearts are breaking to-day. We are very sad and full of humility. Yes, I have said that we were wrong, but that is not the fault of the German people. It is Wilhelm and his war lords who should be blamed.” “Oh, Doctor, you forget! Did you not have an army in the field?” “Most certainly.” “And they were Germans, several millions of them. Is it not so?” He bowed profoundly. “Then why blame it all on the man who, like a coward, has run away and left you to work out your own salvation? The German nation--the whole nation--was behind the Kaiser in this wicked war--wicked so far as Germany was concerned. If I may say so without offense, the trouble--one of the shortcomings, I should say--with your people is that they are not good sportsmen. They are unsportsmanlike losers. Instead of standing up like men and confessing that they were wrong and that they are whipped, they prate about the spirit of Germany being unbroken, and then whimper like spoiled children because the victor says they must pay for breaking his windows!” “You are very severe on my people.” “Herr Doctor, I have been on the western front, up on the lines, for many months, and I have seen much, too much ever to permit me to grow sentimental about ‘the poor German nation that had nothing to do with the war,’ that was opposed to the war, and refused to fight, but let the Kaiser fight it out all by himself.” Grace laughed, and her laugh took the sting out of her words, but they went home to the heart of the Herr Doctor, and his face reddened. “I have admitted that our rulers were in error; I do not admit that the German people were at fault. They were forced into the war,” he answered stiffly. “And forced out of it,” retorted Grace. “Pardon me, but I should not have said so much. When I hear Germans glibly throwing off their own responsibility for the wounding and killing of several million men I am inclined to be irritable. Suppose we drop the subject and not refer to it again. When did you leave the service, Doctor?” “I--I--why, what made you think I had been in the service?” he parried. “Your walk. You have been in the German army. At times you forget yourself and lapse into the goose-step. There I go again. That was too personal. I ask your pardon.” “You are a keen woman, Frau Gray. I served my time in the army when a young man, as all good Germans have done--” Grace interrupted him with a merry laugh. “Thank you for the compliment. Thank you for admitting the truth of all that I have said about the German people. Of course there is nothing personal, unless one chooses to assume it, in what I have said. We part on the best of terms, do we not, Herr Doctor?” urged Grace, pausing and extending her hand.