All the smart tea-places of the capital like Matisse, the Palace, etc., have been monopolised by the German officers, and a lady will not visit them for anything on earth. "Ah non pas là; il y a trop de Boches!" declares a Bruxelloise invited to visit such a place.
It is really a trying time for a lady in Brussels, as well as all over Belgium. The German officers do not think it too base a thing to look up in the Kommandantur books the names of the young women whose husbands are either at the front or in a concentration camp in Germany; and then a real hunting campaign begins, generally ended by the lady leaving her own house and going to stay with relatives or friends. The German officer's way of paying attentions to a lady varies from following her about in the most persistent manner to sending her bouquets of flowers, and even to operating day and night perquisition of her house under some easily-found excuse, or without pretext at all.
I know some instances of such cases which are very common in Brussels. The father of one lady, who received such a visit from an officer accompanied by two soldiers at three o'clock in the morning, is a very highly placed Belgian official. He protested at the Kommandantur, but the answer he had was that the officer was perfectly right in so doing.
All German attempts to make friends with the population have failed.
I know of officers, once personal friends of Belgian families, who have tried in vain to revive the old acquaintance.
Of course, there are a few families who have received the German officers, and these are consequently in favour. In a family of parvenus which hopes to take a better place in Brussels society if the German occupation continues, the Kaiser's birthday was celebrated with a dinner for officers, followed by a dance, permission being gladly granted by the Kommandantur.
But Brussels society, needless to say, has completely ostracised these people. Even the Germans at heart despise them.
"We go to the house," said the officer who told me of the Kaiser's birthday-party, "because we have nowhere else to go, but we know perfectly well they only do it because they think it will improve their social position. They are not exactly the kind of people I shall like to shake hands with when the war is over."
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