“Natürlich, mein Fräulein. Where else should I have been?”
“And you fought?”
“Also natürlich.”
“Where did you fight? At Sedan?”
“At Sedan—yes.”
“Oh, my God!” I whispered to myself. “And were you wounded?” I added aloud.
“A mere trifle. Friedhelm and I had luck to march side by side. I learned to know in spirit and in letter the meaning of Ich hatt’ einen guten Cameraden.”
“You were wounded!” I repeated, unheeding all that discursiveness. “Where? How? Were you in the hospital?”
“Yes. Oh, it is nothing. Since then I have been learning my true place in the world, for you see, unluckily, I was not killed.”
“Thank God! Thank God! How I have wondered! How I have thought—well, how did you come here?”