“Germany is not likely to be so rash as to violate Belgium’s neutrality,” remarked a man present; “but if she does, God help France!”
“And England!” muttered another.
“Well, all I know,” asserted one of the women, “is that Mr. F.—and being a diplomat, he ought to know!—told me this morning it would be folly for England to become embroiled. She isn’t prepared, and she has no army.”
“She has a navy!”
“What use would a navy be against an inland country?” scornfully retorted one of the women; then, as though weary of the folly of her sex, turned to a man who had not yet spoken and asked: “What do you think?”
He shrugged and replied rather disconsolately: “My dear lady, the whole affair is too far beyond my comprehension for me to form any opinion about it. Civilization has been dealt a blow that leaves feeble intellects, like mine, too dazed to think!”
“But do you think England will come in?” persisted his questioner.
“She may and she may not,” was the unsatisfactory reply. “I fail to see what she can accomplish, in her present condition, if she does.”
“Oh, she could be of great use!” exclaimed the banker’s wife. “She could patrol us across the briny deep, and that is all I care about at present! Dear me! if only our cars had not been requisitioned, we might all have been on the sea by now! I do think it rather an imposition to take what belongs to neutrals!”
“They probably never asked to whom the cars belonged,” returned the man. “At a time like this, when every moment lost counts against them, every vehicle for transporting troops is too urgently needed.”