We sat down to tea and cherry tarts and I asked her when she was next going to Belgium. She can, of course, go whenever she likes, but is never there officially, as no German officer may take his wife to Belgium. The General, being so strict a gentleman, will not break the rule even for himself, and so Baroness von Bissing and her children must live alone in Germany, and he with his 150 aides-de-camp in his palace in Brussels. "It is very hard to be without my husband and my eldest son," she said. "Where is your boy?" I asked. "He was taken prisoner by the French, wounded in six places. When he got well, they took him to prison and put him in solitary confinement in a little tiny cell with no work to do and no one with whom he can speak. He may not even look out of the cell window, for they painted it white. Twice a day he is taken for a walk by his guards--and this all because the French thought we did not treat Delcassé's son properly. Now, because they took my boy, and another, we have put six of their men in solitary confinement. We will see where these reprisals will bring us; I am sorry they must be, but we have more captured men than they." "Why did they put Delcassé's son in prison in the first place?" I asked. "Because he was an impertinent boy and called his officers 'dirty dogs of Prussians,'" she answered.... "Serbia and Montenegro are full of people that need to be punished, but Italy--Italy!"--said Frau von Bissing, with her pretty nose in the air--"is a nasty little dog that has done something dirty and must be kicked out!"... "England is a disgusting hypocrite," said my hostess emphatically. "France is not so bad; we do not hate her, but England is in this war solely for money. It is a pleasant little joke of theirs, about our invading Belgium first, but I _know_ that the English and French were there before us." Now, if the wife of the Governor of Belgium believes this so earnestly, one may imagine how firmly the rest of Germany believes it.... X--AT THE CLUB WITH BARON VON MUMM _July 1st._ Went to the Von Gwinners' to lunch. It was Von Gwinner who put through the Bagdad Railway scheme. The house is large, but there is a life-size marble statue of a woman playing a violin in the drawing-room. He has a beautiful garden. Von Gwinner said the victor in this war would be the nation which declared bankruptcy two weeks after all the rest. He expects they will all be taxed to the verge of poverty when the war is over, but believes Germany can hold out the longest.