France is unready, Russia is unready; only Germany and her marionette, Austria, the strings of which she pulls, is ready." "Go on prophesying," said Michael.
"I wish I could.

Ever since that Sarajevo murder I have thought of nothing else day and night.

But how events will develop then I can't imagine.

What will England do?
Who knows?
I only know what Germany thinks she will do, and that is, stand aside because she can't stir, with this Irish mill-stone round her neck.

If Germany thought otherwise, she is perfectly capable of sending a dozen submarines over to our naval manoeuvres and torpedoing our battleships right and left." Michael laughed outright at this.
"While a fleet of Zeppelins hovers over London, and drops bombs on the War Office and the Admiralty," he suggested.
But Aunt Barbara was not in the least diverted by this.
"And if England stands aside," she said, "Der Tag will only dawn a little later, when Germany has settled with France and Russia.