The evening meal consequently was one of strained relations.  Colonel von Giesselin came to supper punctually and was very spruce in appearance.  But he was gravely polite and uncommunicative.  And after dessert the two ladies asked permission to retire.  They lay long awake afterwards, debating in whispers what terror might be in store for them.  Mrs. Warren cried a good deal and lamented futilely her indolent languor of a few days previously. Why had she not, while there was yet time, cleared out of Brussels, gone to Holland, and thence regained England with Vivie, and from England the south of France?  Vivie, more stoical, pointed out it was no use crying over lost opportunities.  Here they were, and they must sharpen their wits to get away at the first opportunity.  Perhaps the American Consul might help them?

The next morning, however, their guest, who had insensibly turned host, told Vivie the tram service to Brussels, like the train service, was suspended indefinitely, and that he feared they must resign themselves to staying where they were.  Under his protection they had nothing to fear.  He was sorry the soldiers had helped themselves so freely to the livestock; but everything had now settled down.  Henceforth they would be sure of something to eat, as he himself had got to be fed.  And all he asked of them was their agreeable society.

Two months went by of this strange life.  Two months, in which Vivie only saw German newspapers—­which she read with the aid of von Giesselin.  Their contents filled her with despair.  They made very little of the Marne rebuff, much of the capture of Antwerp and Ostende, and the occupation of all Belgium (as they put it).  Vivie noted that the German Emperor’s heart had bled for the punishment inflicted on Louvain. (She wondered how that strange personality, her father, had fared in the destruction of monastic buildings.) But she had then no true idea of what had taken place, and the far-reaching harm this crime had done to the German reputation.  She noted that the German Press expressed disappointment that the cause of Germany, the crusade against Albion, had received no support from the Irish Nationalists, or from the “revolting” women, the Suffragettes, who had been so cruelly maltreated by the administration of Asquith and Sir Grey.

This point was discussed by the Colonel, but Vivie found herself speaking as a patriot.  How could the Germans expect British women to turn against their own country in its hour of danger?

“Then you would not,” said von Giesselin, “consent to write some letters to your friends, if I said I could have them sent safely to their destination?—­only letters,” he added hastily, seeing her nostrils quiver and a look come into her eyes—­“to ask your Suffrage friends to bring pressure to bear on their Government to bring this d-r-r-eadful War to a just peace.  That is all we ask.”  But Vivie said “with all her own private grudge against the present ministry she felt au fond she was British; she must range herself in time of war with her own people.”