Oh, Fritz, I seem to dream that dream again!" My wife looked up at me with a brave smile and a trembling lip.
"Shall you go into the house, Fritz ?" she asked.
"Not unless I see need, sweetheart," said I.
She came and kissed me.

"Go, if you are wanted," she said.

And she tried to smile at the queen, as though she risked me willingly.
"I could have been such a wife, Fritz," whispered the queen.

"Yes, I could." I had nothing to say; at the moment I might not have been able to say it if I had.

There is something in the helpless courage of women that makes me feel soft.