"If that happen to be my destiny. Can any one experience what we have
done during these three years and not be as fatalistic as the men in the
trenches? I'd rather die before a firing squad after an attempt to save
my wretched country than live to see it set back a hundred years. But I
refuse to believe that I shall be betrayed or that I shall fail. _That_
I believe to be my destiny. For a long time the idea has been fumbling
in the back of my mind, but it lacked the current which would switch it
into my consciousness. You two have supplied the current."
Kate threw back her head and gave her merry, ringing laugh. "What
delicious irony! Germany defeated by its women! When I think of your
august papa, dear Gisela! That kulturistically typical, that naive yet
Jovian symbol of all the arrogance and conceit, the simple creed of
Kaiserism ueber alles, and will-to-rule, that hurled this colossus on
the back of Europe--"
"Quite so. You of all present know that I received the proper training
for the part I am about to play. If all goes well we women will erect a
tablet to my father's memory in the cathedral at Berlin." She leaned
down and patted the rapt face of Heloise, then scowled at Mimi. "May I
not count on you?" she asked sternly.
"May you? Well, say, what are you taking me for? I'm more afraid of you
than I am of a firing squad, and anyhow I seem to know we'll win out.
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