"I certainly can't make head or tail of European politics. We run as fast as they will let us from a country that hasn't declared war and that nobody has challenged, as I can see, but which merely thinks it may be attacked, to get into a country that everybody has signed a compact to let alone and live. This morning when I came down into the garden of this darling hotel to drink my coffee, I hear bells and commotion and I am told an order has come to _mobilize_. But what for? When Mr. Laurence and Henry came they said it was merely to protect neutrality. I don't see much in a neutrality that calls all the men out. It is harsh business for the people. I've been out in the streets and walking in the country for hours and I'm broken-hearted. It seems that the bell the police go up and down ringing means that they must go at once. There are posters all over the walls to the _Armée de Terre_ and _Armée de mer_, telling them to lose no time. Why, this morning the man who was serving us left in the middle of our meal, just saying '_Pardon, c'est la mobilization_,' and in three minutes Madame was fluttering around apologizing for a delay and telling us it wouldn't happen again, that she would serve us. Poor thing! she'll have to, for every man about her place, her only son included, followed that horrid bell. There's many a woman worse off than our landlady. There are the farmers' wives, left quite alone with cows, pigs, horses and the crops ready to harvest--some of them with not a soul to help them. They never complain, only say, '_C'est la guerre_,' but it isn't _la guerre_--at least, not in Belgium. How can it be, with her treaties! "DINANT, Tuesday, August 3. "I did not send this letter as I expected to. Mr. Laurence advised us to mail no letters until after the mobilization is well under way--says the tax on transportation is so heavy that the mails are held up. There is great difficulty even in getting Brussels by telephone or telegraph, and we've had no papers for three days.