"Vater unser der du bist im Himmel...."
Five thousand people of all classes, of all social conditions, everyone with a father or a brother or a husband to pray for, recited the Paternoster in the theatre.
They recited it in a low voice, like the murmur of a quiet river.
Then there was a short silence followed by the benediction, recited by the black-bearded monk, and the crowd walked out quietly.
I walked out with the others, and I found myself a little distance from one of the smartest concert-halls in Berlin, in which a certain Professor Blüthner was to deliver a lecture, the title of which had attracted my attention when I had seen it announced in the morning newspapers; it was, "Us, Italy, and England."
As I was just in time I stepped in.
The audience was very select, the five marks admission being devoted to the fund for soldiers fighting at the front. Most of what is left of Berlin society was there.
With polished words the lecturer served out to his hearers the most astonishing theory: England took part in the struggle, not in defence of Belgian neutrality, but in fear of Italy becoming a great Mediterranean Power.
How? The explanation, according to the lecturer, was simple.