She put her hand luggage--she had no other--into a first-class compartment, and having an hour and a half to wait walked out to look at Ostende.
Summer tourists were still there; the Casino was full of people, the shops were doing an active trade; the restaurants were crowded with English, Americans, Belgians taking tea, chocolate, or liqueurs at little tables and creating a babel of talk.

Newspapers were being sold everywhere by ragamuffin boys who shouted their head-lines in French, Flemish, and quite understandable English.

A fort or two at Liege had fallen, but it was of no consequence.

General Leman could hold out indefinitely, and the mere fact that German soldiers had entered the town of Liege counted for nothing.

Belgium had virtually won the war by holding up the immense German army.