nt clothes, it
needs the vestments of a youth and then a man. And so with Germany. She
grew and grew until the country could not hold her children, until her
banks could not contain her money, until she stretched her arms out on
every side and felt herself stifled. Germany came late into the world
and found it parcelled out, but had she not a right to her place? She
made herself great. She needed space."

"Well," Philippa observed, "you couldn't suppose that other nations
were going to give up what they had, just because she wanted their
possessions, could you?"

"Perhaps not," he admitted. "And yet, you see, the immutable law comes
in here. The stronger must possess--not only the stronger by arms,
mind, but by intellect, by learning, by proficiency in science, by
utilitarianism. The really cruel part, the part I was thinking of then,
as I looked out across the sea, is that this crude and miserable resort
to arms should be necessary."

"If only Germans themselves were as broad-minded and reasonable as
you," Philippa sighed, "one feels that there might be some hope for the
future!"

"I am not alone," he assured her, "but, you see, all over Germany there
is spread like a spider's web the lay religion of the citizen--devotion
to the Government, blind obedience to the Kaiser. Independent thought
has made Germany great in science, in political economy, in economics.
But independent thought is never turned towards her political destinies.
Those are shaped for her. For good or for evil her children have learnt
obedience."

They were descending the hillside now. At their feet lay the little
town, black and silent.

"You have helped me to understand a little," Philippa said. "You put
things so gently and yet so clearly. Now tell me, will you not, how it
is that you, who are a Swede by birth, are bearing arms for Germany?"

"That is very simple," he confessed. "My mother was a German, and when
she died she bequeathed to me large estates in Bavaria, and a very
considerable fortune. These I could never have inherited unless I
had chosen to do my military service in Germany. My family is an
impoverished one, and I have brothers and sisters dependent upon me.
Under the circumstances, hesitation on my part was impossible."

"But when the war came?" she queried.

He looked at her in surprise.

"What was there left for me then?" he demanded. "Naturally I heard
nothing but the voice of those whom I had sworn to obey. I was i