ISABELLE Are you in the firing-line? OTTO It’s all firing-line at the moment. We are advancing like a torrent. I did not dare tell your father, but the whole of Belgium is invaded. Antwerp will fall to-morrow and Paris in a week. ISABELLE And after that? OTTO After that, victory; and we shall settle down here, unless you would rather go with me to Germany. ISABELLE I shall go where you go. (_Enter_ FLORIS.) FLORIS Isn’t dad here? OTTO Good-morning, Floris! Come and shake hands. FLORIS (_Recoiling in horror._) Shake hands with you! ISABELLE Floris! FLORIS Where’s dad? ISABELLE In the next room. But you might at least be civil and shake hands with Otto, who wishes us no harm and who has come here to protect us. FLORIS I don’t want his protection, thank you! (_Exit, slamming the door behind him._) OTTO You see the hatred! Amazing! It’s the same everywhere, all the time, wherever we go. They simply will not listen, they will not understand. I was conscious of its existence even in the heart of your father, who is the best-natured, fairest and most tranquil-minded man I know. What can we do, when they treat us like that?... But we must keep an eye on the boy. So long as he confines his offensive remarks to me, there’s no great harm done, but it would be a bad look out for him if he took it into his head to treat the Major or Lieutenant von Schaunberg in this way, for they are neither of them very patient. (_A shot is fired in the distance._) That’s a shot! ISABELLE Yes, at the bottom of the garden, near the wood. (_Enter hurriedly the_ BURGOMASTER _and_ FLORIS.) THE BURGOMASTER Did you hear? A rifle-shot! FLORIS (_Between his teeth._) One less. OTTO What do you say? FLORIS Nothing. I can say what I like. THE BURGOMASTER (_Anxiously._) But who fired the shot? It can only have been one of your men. There’s not a fire-arm left in this house, or anywhere in the town. OTTO It’s probably my brother-officer, Lieutenant von Schaunberg, taking a stroll in the wood. He’s very fond of shooting; and I told him he’d find rabbits there. THE BURGOMASTER Yes, the shot came from that side; but there wasn’t a single gun in the house. OTTO