XII. A GERMAN MARRIAGE PROPOSAL 256

XXXIII. A WAITRESS DANCE 263

XXXIV. CHAMPAGNE 272

XXXV. RECUPERATION 279

XXXVI. THE GERMAN PROBLEM. AN ANSWER 285

XXXVII. A GERMAN "GOTT BE WITH YE" 294

XXXVIII. A JOURNEY 302

XXXIX. THE TOMB OF CHARLEMAGNE 313

XL. THE END OF A LITTLE GAME 323

XLI. ARE THEY HUNS? 329

XLII. THE ANTI-CHRISTIANS? 336

XLIII. THE TEUTON PROBLEM. A SOLUTION 347

VILLA ELSA

CHAPTER I

TRIUMPHANT GERMANY IN 1913

In the late summer of 1913 a quiet American college man of
twenty-three, tall, lean, somewhat listless in bearing, who had
been idling on a trip in Germany without a thought of adventure,
was observing, without being able to define or understand, one of
the most remarkable conditions of national and racial exhilaration
that ever blessed a country in time of ripest peace.

He had never been out of America, and supposed his Yankee people,
with all their wide liberty, contemplated life with as much
enjoyment as any other. But in that land which is governed with
iron, where (as Bismarck said) a man cannot even get up out of his
bed and walk to a window without breaking a law, Gard Kirtley was
finding something different, strange, wonderful, in the way of
marked happiness. It pulsated everywhere, in every man, woman and
child. It seemed to be a sensation of victory, yet there had been
no victory. It appeared to reflect some mighty distinctive human
achievement or event of which a whole race could be proud in
unison. There had been nothing of the sort.

And yet it was there, a certain exuberance. The people, with heads
carried high, quickly moving feet and pockets full of money, were
enlivened by a public joyousness because they were humans and,
above all, because they were Germans. It seemed a joy of human
prestige, of wholesale well-being, of an assuredly auspicious
future. Multitudes of toasts were being drunk. The marching and
counter-marching of soldiers looked excessive even for Germany. A
season of patriotic holidays was apparently at hand. Festivals,
public rites, celebrated the widespread exultation. The whole
country conducted itself as on parade, _en fete_.

Wages were higher and comforts greater than e