The plot is started.

You know quite well how it has progressed." "Naturally," Catherine assented, "but after all, tell me, where does the wonderful diplomacy come in?
The terms of peace are not the terms of a conqueror.

Germany is to engage herself to give up what she has sworn to hold, even to pay indemnities, to restore all conquered countries, and to retire her armies behind the Rhine." The young man looked at his companion steadfastly for several seconds.
"In the idiom of this country, Countess," he said, "I raise my hat to you.

You preserve your mask of ignorance to the end.

So much so, indeed, that I find myself asking do you really believe that Germany intends to do this ?" "But you forget," she reminded him.