he mere pleasure of putting
his vigor to the proof, also gave him counsel. It was a villainous
thing to abandon a woman. Only a coward would do such a thing.... And
this German woman appeared to love him so much!...

And with his ardent, meridional exuberance, he embraced her and lifted
her up, patting the loosened ringlets on her forehead, petting her like
a sick child, and drinking in her tears with interminable kisses.

No; he would not abandon her.... He was more disposed to defend her
from all her enemies. He did not know who her enemies were, but if she
needed a man,--there he was....

In vain his inner monitor reviled him while he was making such offers;
he was compromising himself blindly; perhaps this adventure was going
to be the most terrible in his history.... But in order to quiet his
scruples, the other voice kept crying, "You are a gentleman; and a
gentleman does not desert a lady, through fear, a few hours after
having won her affection. Forward, Captain!"

An excuse of cowardly selfishness arose in his thoughts, fabricated
from one single piece. He was a Spaniard, a neutral, in no way involved
in the conflict of the Central Powers. His second had often spoken to
him of solidarity of race, of Latin nations, of the necessity of
putting an end to militarism, of going to war in order that there might
be no more wars.... Mere vaporings of a credulous reader! He was
neither English nor French. Neither was he German; but the woman he
loved was, and he was not going to give her up for any antagonisms in
which he was not concerned.

Freya must not weep. Her lover affirmed repeatedly that he wished to
live forever at her side, that he was not thinking of abandoning her
because of what she had said: and he even pledged his word of honor
that he would aid her in everything that she might consider possible
and worthy of him.

Thus Captain Ulysses Ferragut impetuously decided his destiny.

When his beloved again took him to the doctor's home, he was received
by her just as though he really belonged to the family. She no longer
had to hide her nationality. Freya simply called her _Frau Doktor_ and
she, with the glib enthusiasm of the professor, finally succeeded in
converting the sailor, explaining to him the right and reason of her
country's entrance into war with half of Europe.

Poor Germany had to defend herself. The Kaiser was a man of peace in
spite of the fact that for many years he had been methodical