Gretel pushed back her chair from the table, and rose.
“I really cannot stay any longer,” she said, hurriedly. “I am afraid my brother will be anxious about me. Good-bye, Mrs. Becker. I am terribly sorry about Fräulein. Perhaps you will send me a line to let me know how she gets on. My address is——”
“Sit down!” thundered Mr. Becker, in a voice so changed that Gretel dropped back into her chair, shaking from head to foot.
“I think we are misunderstanding each other,” the man went on, in a quieter tone, but with eyes fixed sternly on Gretel’s face. “When I ask Hermann Schiller’s daughter if she wishes to help her country, I naturally suppose she knows what country I mean.”
“I thought you meant my own country,” faltered Gretel. “I am an American.”
“An American!” repeated Mr. Becker, scornfully. “Hermann Schiller’s daughter an American! It is impossible! I will not believe it.”
“My mother was an American,” said Gretel, “and I was born here in New York. I have always loved Germany, for my father’s sake, but if he were alive now, I know he would not approve of the dreadful things the Germans are doing.” Gretel was horribly frightened, and yet, oddly enough, she had never felt so truly an American as she did at that moment.
There was a moment of intense silence, during which Mr. Becker continued to regard his visitor with stern, incredulous eyes. Then the man said, slowly:
“I see. You have been deceived, like so many others. You have been told only one side of this great question. Otherwise, nothing will persuade me to believe the daughter of a German patriot would turn her back on the Fatherland in her hour of need. Listen, and I will try to explain the truth to you. Germany is fighting for her existence. She has been cheated, deceived—do you understand?”
Mr. Becker talked on steadily for the next ten minutes, but Gretel scarcely heard a word he said. Her eyes were on the clock, and her sole thought was of making her escape. Oh, why had she ever come here, even for Fräulein’s sake? Would that dreadful man never stop talking, and let her go home? At last Mr. Becker paused.