"You are cruel——"
"I am truthful. Anything else from me to you would be beneath my womanhood. I would kill you if I had the strength or if I dared." She gave a bitter laugh. "It is at least something, that we understand each other."
He paused a long moment before replying.
And then, "Do we understand each other? I hope that you will permit me to speak a few words in extenuation of a person you have never known—of Leo Goritz, the man."
"A man who makes war upon a woman—who uses violence to compel obedience——"
"A woman—but an enemy to my country. Between my duty to Germany and my own inclinations, I had no choice. I was an instrument of the State, pitiless, exact and exacting. You have spoken the truth. So shall I. Had my duty to Germany required it of me, I should have killed you with my own hand—even if you had been my sister."
She gazed at him with alien eyes.
"It is monstrous! I would to God you had."
He bowed.
"That is merely my official conception of my obligation to the Fatherland," he said quietly.