“It is very good,” said Doris. “I have often heard it said that nowhere in the world is chocolate so excellent as in Germany.”
“I trust that you may find it so. There are many things beside chocolate that are excellent in Germany, Fräulein Mather.”
“I am sure that must be true,” she said politely, touching the cup to her lips.
“Then why do you dislike us so much?” he asked with a smile.
“It is not your people that I dislike so much, General von Stromberg. Many of the most charming people I have ever known have been Germans. It is not what you are, but what you want to be, that I dislike; not your habits or your tastes, but your intolerance of any civilization which happens to differ from yours.”
She paused, a little frightened at her temerity, but von Stromberg still smiled.
“Go on,” he chuckled, “you speak very prettily.”
“I am an American, General von Stromberg, from the United States, where people are accustomed to speak what they feel, without fear of lèse majesté. If the President of the United States did something that I didn’t like I would write him a letter.”
“And would he answer it?” he purred.