It would have been the end of us if we had stood aside and seen Germany violate a solemn treaty." Even with Michael close to her, the call of her blood made itself audible to Sylvia.

Instinctively she withdrew her hand from his.
"Ah, you don't understand Germany at all," she said.

"Hermann always felt that too.

He told me he felt he was talking gibberish to you when he spoke of it.

It is clearly life and death to Germany to move against France as quickly as possible." "But there's a direct frontier between the two," said he.
"No doubt, but an impossible one." Michael frowned, drawing his big eyebrows together.
"But nothing can justify the violation of a national oath," he said.
"That's the basis of civilisation, a thing like that." "But if it's a necessity?
If a nation's existence depends on it ?" she asked.