"You prophesy a universal war?" shrieked Bertha.
"The answer is in your ledger. For thirty and more years your firm has been arming the universe. Since your father's death you have distributed armaments on a vaster scale than ever, and now, I understand, the pace that killeth is to be still more increased.
"When you have furnished Germany with all the guns, the ammunition, the chemicals, the flying machines, the cruisers, the submarines, the hand grenades—what then? Presto! a pretext of the 1870 pattern, or something similar, and Zara's prophecy will come true as sure as light will burst from this Welsbach now."
Franz touched a button.
"Voilà, Madame War Lady," he said, bowing himself out.
CHAPTER XX
"AUNTIE MAJESTY" AND HER FROCKS
Bertha on Her Dignity—On Thin Ice—Barbara Wants to Know—The Empress's Toilette
"And now for a good talk," said Barbara, with a look upon the tirewoman who had accompanied Bertha to Court. "Tell me all about Auntie Majesty's 'Martha.'"
"Oh, she's far more important than this one," Bertha replied, patting the "Frau's" cheek; "a Baroness like Mamma and in the Almanach de Gotha."